A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong

SPECIALSPECIAL FEATURE FEATURE A brief history of The old College campus in Wan Chai.technical education in Hong Kong — with special reference to the Polytechnic University By Dr D. D. Waters Your glazing is new and your plumbing’s strange, But otherwise I perceive no change… Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936 n 1954, I joined the Colonial Service in England as an Education Officer At 34, my total pay including basic salary, expatriates. Every 21st April, the Queen’s I (Technical) and set sail on RMS expatriation pay and cost of living birthday, there was the pomp and pageantry Canton, a Peninsular and Oriental Line allowance, was just over $2,400 a month of a military parade along the streets of passenger ship. The voyage to Hong (in Hong Kong dollars). This was considered Kowloon. For government officers of my Kong took 31 days. I was posted to the a good starting salary. rank and above this was followed by Govern-ment’s Technical College, in Expatriates then held almost all the a garden party at Government House Wood Road,Wan Chai, where my duties important positions in the College. No attended by a good mix of expatriates, were those of a senior lecturer in the localisation had taken place in the Chinese, Eurasians and dignitaries of Department of Building. I was a fairly Government’s Education Department. In other nationalities. Hong Kong was very typical, expatriate member of staff on a 1954, except for Medical and Health, all colonial. four-year tour of duty. government department heads were But I am getting ahead of myself. This is 16 PROFILE APRIL 2002 SPECIALSPECIAL FEATURE FEATURE an article about technical education and You can almost picture the carpentry the times in which it operated. Before classes using the same kind of Chinese continuing let me say it is an honour to tools and labour saving stools-cum-benches have been invited to write about an which are still used in industry today. With institution which many of us regard with the latter one can hold a piece of timber affection: namely The Hong Kong being worked with one’s foot and plane Polytechnic University. As we shall see, “downhill”. This makes good workstudy like many distinguished educational sense. As a footnote I recall one of our late establishments around the world, it started carpentry instructors at the old Technical Dr Dan Waters on today’s PolyU campus from humble beginnings. College always using his Chinese plane At the invitation of Profile, Dr D.D. Waters, Virtually all the technological universities when he wanted an especially good finish also dubbed “Mr Technical Institute”, has in Britain, such as Loughborough and on a piece of timber. There is something to contributed this warmly personal account Strathclyde, and the “new”, ex-polytechnic be said for Chinese tools. of the origins of technical education in Hong universities, started life as technical institutes But retracing our steps: in the 1870s up Kong, which is also an interesting profile of or colleges. The same happened in Australia. to 100 boys, in addition to learning the this Institution in its early days. Similarly in the United States, as the frontier Chinese language, were taught carpentry, Dr Waters, now in his eighties, has taught moved west in the latter part of the 19th shoemaking and printing by Roman Catholic building at the Hong Kong Technical College, century, the prairie states established brothers at the Reformatory at West Point. forerunner of PolyU, since sailing from mechanical or agricultural colleges or The original way of learning a trade was England to Hong Kong in 1954. He assumed institutes. Many of these have become large, for an apprentice to follow a master headship of the Building Department in 1963 state universities. craftsman from whom the lad picked up before being appointed Principal of Hong Kong’s first Technical Institute at Morrison But first things first. “tricks of the trade”. These were seldom Hill five years later. written down or made known to those In 1972, he joined the Education Early days outside their fraternity. A Chinese Department to oversee the setting up of As early as 1863 vocational training in apprenticeship implied being almost a slave additional Institutes, and subsequently carpentry, tailoring, shoemaking, printing, to one’s master. In early years it meant became Assistant Director (Technical bookbinding and gardening was provided being the master’s cook, servant, Education). Dr Waters was made a for 12 boys by a Father Raimondi. Classes laundryman and general dogsbody. In Companion of the Imperial Service Order in were held not far from the Roman Catholic addition to paying respects and burning 1981 for his work in technical education. In Mission House, which stood in Wellington joss sticks to patron deities (such as Lu Pan 1998 he was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia Street, in what was then called the City of for the building trades), in the first year or Star for his work in heritage conservation. Victoria. two a boy did little more than watch a master ply his trade as well as “fetch and carry”. If the lad disobeyed he was scolded or beaten. Returning to institutional training: the first prize-giving ceremony at the Li Shing Scientific and Industrial College was held in 1905. More than 70 students had enrolled but by examination time, with a high dropout rate, only 35 remained. Some things never change! The founders of that College considered the objectives were to raise China from her “low industrial condition” and to educate her sons in modern science and industry, and to train them to use their hands as well as their brains. The 1958–1961 full-time diploma class in building, with only one female student, seated on We hope to train independent the right. Seated in the middle is the late Sidney Burt, Principal, flanked by the late Jack Clarey, Head of Building Department on his left and the author on his right. workers and not mere “hands” to APRIL 2002 PROFILE 17 SPECIALSPECIAL FEATURE FEATURE be always under the direction of • the setting up of a junior technical school, sound general education, together with foreigners. • the provision of evening classes for training considered comparable to an Fine sounding words indeed at a time when apprentices, and apprenticeship. This school, too, was the aim of most schools in the Colony was • the commencement of full-time classes converted into a secondary technical school to train clerks. at a later date. in the late 1950s. During the Governorship of Sir Matthew As a result the Junior Technical School, The first government post-secondary Nathan (1904-1907) the Government started the Government’s first venture into technical institution was the Government to show interest in elementary technical full-time technical education, was up and Trade School which opened in Wood education. This culminated in the founding running by 1932. This secondary school Road, Wan Tsai (using the old spelling), in of the Technical Institute in 1907. It came ran a narrow, four-year course designed 1937. This was the founding institution, under the control of the Director of mainly as pre-apprentice training for the which has since been upgraded to become Education and was housed in Queen’s engineering trades. I remember JTS, as it our present day Polytechnic University. The College then sited on Hollywood Road. was usually called, in the mid 1950s when old building stood on the corner where the This first Technical Institute was absorbed the Headmaster, an Englishman, was a Vocational Training Council’s 19-storey into the Hong Kong University when the patternmaker (a craftsman who made block stands today. The Trade School ran latter opened in 1912. timber moulds for metal castings in a courses in building, mechanical engineering foundry) and proud of it. It was not until and marine wireless operating. Post-World War One 1957, when the name was altered to The two-storey (a third floor was added The development of technical education Victoria Technical School (VTS), that a in 1953) Trade School, with fine face- was slow. But in 1926 the Salesian Roman standard secondary school curriculum was brickwork, was well constructed on the Catholic Fathers, who have done so much phased in. lines of other colonial-style buildings erected to promote technical education, commenced Meanwhile in 1934, the Far East Flying between the two World Wars. It had high shoemaking, carpentry, tailoring and Training School had commenced training ceilings with paddle-fans which necessitated printing courses and, at about the same pilots and engineers for the civil aviation us staff using paperweights on our desks. time, the old Taikoo Dockyard in Quarry industry. The Far East Flying and Technical There was virtually no air-conditioning then Bay started classes for their apprentices. School Limited, as it was later renamed, an exception being the Hong Kong and In 1931, a committee was formed under sited at Kai Tak Airport, was a private Shanghai Bank (HSBC), completed in 1935, the chairmanship of Sir William Hornell, institution. It closed in 1983 because of the reputed to have been the first air- then Vice-Chancellor of Hong Kong rapid expansion of government sponsored conditioned building in Asia. University, to consider the possibility of technical education. At the Technical College a Navigation introducing a system of technical education. Further progress was made in 1935, Department was added in 1951, Commerce The Report’s three main recommendations when the Salesian Society founded the in 1954 and Textiles in 1957. Girls were were: Aberdeen Trade School. This provided a first admitted to full-time technical courses in 1955.

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