ENG-1954 — Page 123

EDUCATION

leave pay for teachers who are so entitled. Grants may also be made up to 50% of the cost of new buildings and major repairs. There are 20 schools functioning under the Grant Code, 18 of them having large secondary departments. English is the usual medium of instruction in the senior classes.

Government also operates a Subsidy Code, the object of which is to encourage the establishment of primary schools which have reliable committees of management and are staffed with trained teachers. The financial assistance given under this Code enables school managers to keep fees reasonably low and ensures that teachers employed in schools receiving such assistance are paid equivalent salaries to those paid to teachers in Government run primary schools. The Subsidy Code provides the means by which satisfactory primary education can be given to children in rural as well as urban areas. There are now 327 primary schools receiving subsidies, 12 of which also include general secondary or technical classes.

At the end of the year under review, 719 private schools in the Colony maintained entirely from their own resources between them catered for over 64% of the school population. They included every type of school from kindergartens to schools providing adult evening classes and post-secondary education in Chinese. Government exercises a more direct super- vision over grant aided and subsidized schools than over private schools with the result that the standard of tuition on the whole tends to be higher in schools aided by public funds than in private schools. There are, however, many very good private schools.

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