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205. By the Education Ordinance No. 26 of 1913 "school" is defined as a place where ten or more persons are being or are habitually taught whether in one or more classes. It is unlawful for any person to open, start, manage, teach in, or maintain any school in the Colony unless and until such person shall have applied for and obtained a certificate of registration. Schools are divided into English schools where the medium of instruction is solely or chiefly English, and vernacular schools in which Chinese is the medium. Schools may also. be divided into three classes-provided (Government), aided or subsidized (by Government), and non-subsidized.

206. Provided schools (with the exception of the Belilios Public School for Girls and the Indian School) take pupils after a four to five years vernacular school course. Fees are charged in all Government schools, but a certain number of free scholarships are allotted.

✓ 207. Children of the working classes, if their parents cannot afford fees, must generally obtain their education, if at all, at the free subsidized schools in respect of which Government pays fifty per cent. of the rent and the salary of the teachers. There are 161 subsidized schools in Hong Kong and Kowloon with an attendance of 16,000 and 118 in the New Territories with an attendance of 4,400. Of the 161 schools in Hong Kong and Kowloon approximately 130 are free or charge very low fees and are conducted by missionary bodies, charitable institutions like the Con- fucian Society, and various guilds. The fees of the remaining thirty vary from one to three dollars a month. The age of the pupils is five to fifteen with the majority between five to ten. None of the New Territories subsidized schools is conducted by a charitable institution. The subsidy in their case varies according to their efficiency.

208. In Hong Kong and Kowloon there are 693 non-subsidized schools with an attendance of 53,000, and 85 in the New Territories with an attendance of 3,200. All of these, with the exception of an orphanage and a school in the New Territories in which agricultural subjects are taught, are on a fee paying basis.

209. Of these non-subsidized schools 50 are night schools, all of which charge fees, except five conducted by Y.W.C.A. The attendance is about two thousand. The pupils are chiefly females such as amahs and factory girls. The work of these schools is not of a high standard and they are conducted by teachers and others as a means of additional income.

210. There is an industrial school in Aberdeen conducted by the Salesian fathers, which receives a charitable grant-in-aid from Government, and serves as an industrial school for the purposes of the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Ordin- ance No. 6 of 1932. It has about three hundred resident pupils of whom some are Government nominees. Juvenile offenders may be sent there by the magistrates if there are vacancies. The St. Louis Industrial School which also receives a charitable grant-in-aid teaches printing and book-binding. A small fee is generally charged. There is no reformatory.

211. Technical education is provided at the Junior Technical School conducted by Government, which is a fee paying institution providing a three to four years course for pupils of average age of eleven to fifteen. Students. on the completion of their course, generally become apprentices in local engineering firms such as dockyards. The maximum enrolment in 1937 was 118.

212. Government also conducts a Trade School which was opened in 1936 and which provides full time day courses in wireless telegraphy, building and motor car engineering. It is a fee paying school and the age of the pupils is sixteen onwards. The wireless course is of nine months and the building course and the motor car engineering course are of three years. There are less than a hundred pupils.

213. Evening schools for apprentices are held at the Taikoo and Kowloon* Docks and more advanced classes at the Junior Technical School and the Trade School. In the former the fees are paid by the dock companies and teachers are provided by Government.

*

Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Co.