ENG-1955 — Page 123

86

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

pay, incidentals, and passages for teachers who are so entitled. Grants may also be made up to 50% of the cost of new buildings and major repairs. The Government contributed $750,000 towards the cost of a new building for the Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, which was opened in September, and has accommodation for 900 pupils in one session. There are 19 secondary schools functioning under the Grant Code, and many of them have large primary departments; the usual medium of instruction in the senior classes is English.

The 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. This Code provides the means by which satisfactory primary education can be given to children in rural as well as urban areas, and by its aid school managers can keep fees reasonably low and pay teachers the same salaries as are paid in government primary schools. There are now 333 primary schools receiving subsidies, of which 8 have middle classes and 3 have vocational classes.

The 753 private schools, maintained entirely out of their own resources, provide for nearly 63% of the school popula- tion. They include every type of school from kindergarten to post-secondary, adult and vocational. The majority offer full-time primary or secondary education in the medium of Chinese, but there has been some expansion in secondary Anglo-Chinese education. Chinese middle schools take the Hong Kong Chinese School Certificate Examination, while the Anglo-Chinese Secondary Schools take the Hong Kong English School Certificate Examination.

Actual expenditure on education by the Education and other Departments from August 1954 to July 1955 may be briefly summarized as :

Recurrent Expenditure:

Personal emoluments

Total

$11,393,712

($)

Other charges

2,115,633

Maintenance & repairs of

school buildings

(Public

Works Department)

255,612

13,764,957

Grants and Subsidies:

26,468,324

Capital Expenditure:

Furniture and equipment for

new government schools New school buildings (Public

Works Department)

389,803

1,716,812

2,106,615 42,339,896