ENG-1957 — Page 162

EDUCATION

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schooling for poor children, and the British Red Cross Society organizes hospital schools for crippled children. There are schools for the deaf, for the blind and for lepers; orphanages; homes for maladjusted children; while the Po Leung Kuk provides free schooling for the homeless young women and children in its care. (See also Chapter 11).

Other agencies which form part of the educational pattern include the Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association, the Children's Playground Association, the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Association, and the Rotary Clubs of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

In co-operation with the Social Welfare Office, the Educa- tion Department works closely with voluntary agencies of this kind and is represented on the recently established Mental Health Association of Hong Kong, which has aroused public interest. It is also closely associated with the Medical Department in the sphere of health education, and in the professional sphere with the Hong Kong Teachers' Association.

Libraries are maintained by the British Council, the United States Information Service, the local Chambers of Commerce, the Education Department and the University of Hong Kong, membership of the last two being restricted. Books, pamphlets, journals and visual-aid material are dis- tributed by the Public Relations Office, the British Council, various consular authorities and commercial agencies. The British Council, whose activities are also described at page 311 of Chapter 20, administers post-graduate scholarship awards and gives advice and assistance to students intending to take courses in Britain.

In the educational scene, as described above, three main problems confront all interested bodies, public or private; a swollen population, due to the influx of refugees, a higher birth-rate and a lower infant mortality rate; the scarcity of new school sites in a small and highly developed Colony;