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A Grant School is a special type of secondary school in Hong Kong. According to the current legislation, "Grant Schools" are referred to "any secondary school which receives subsidies in accordance with the Code of Aid for Secondary Schools and which was, before 1 April 1973, in receipt of grants in accordance with the Grant Code". (Cap 279C) They were established by missionaries and churches in nineteenth and early twentieth century, and receive grant-in-aid from the government to operate, thus named Grant Schools.
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Historical context
The emergence of Grant Schools is related to a specific historical context. When the colony of Hong Kong was established as Britain's trading outpost in the Far East, the need of local education for trade as well as administer the territory were found. However the colonial government was not able to provide a sufficient education as needed. After the passage of Elementary Education Act 1870 by the imperial parliament, which allowed state funding to Church schools, the colonial government followed suit and adopted the similar measures to provide public education by limited financial resources.
The resulting 1873 Grant Code is a product of the aforementioned development. It regulates the criteria for admission to the grant-in-aid scheme and other the standards of the schools. The government also provides land and gives grants to establish schools. In turn the duty of administering the day-to-day operation of the schools fall into the hand of the missionaries. Grant-in-aid from the government provided only part financial income for the schools, donations and tuition fees are other sources to finance the schools. The government thus have the church to shoulder the financial and administrative burden of providing education, and in turn the church have another platform to expand their missionary activities.
The number of Grant Schools peaked at the end of 19th century, with more than 100 schools receiving grants under the Grant Code. The majority of the Grant Schools by that time were the vernacular schools which provided Chinese education. Nevertheless, these vernacular schools were criticised by the school inspectors for their appalling academic performance. Students were near-illiterate and could not handle subject knowledge. On the other hand, the government introduced a parallel "Subsidy" system (using the Subsidy Code) which was less restrictive. Some schools opted for the new Subsidy and dropped the Grant, creating a fall-off in the number of Grant Schools. As a result, the government decided to abandon the Grant system in 1921 except for a few competent schools. For the newly founded schools after 1921, only the qualified ones were allowed to join the Grant system. They were mostly schools giving Western education in European languages. The remaining schools of the Grant system later formed the Grant Schools Council (see below) and operated till today.
Current situation
After the introduction of universal primary education (1971) and junior secondary education (1978), the practical differences between the Grant Schools and other Subsidized Schools are little, with the exception of retaining legal distinctions. The Grant Code and Subsidy Code were unified as the Code of Aid (then regarded as "Aided Schools"), government aid is paid regardless of the school origin and prestige. But due to the distinguished history and alumni, the Grant Schools in Hong Kong have established themselves as a tier of elite schools in the territory. These schools prefer to preserve their former identities as Grant Schools.
A number of Grant Schools have recently joined the Direct Subsidy Scheme, another funding programme initiated by the government which allow greater freedom for schools to set curriculum, entrance requirement and tuition fee [1], in high profile partly due to their dissatisfactions towards the perceived unfriendly education reform policy. These schools included [2]:
Timeline
Grant Schools Council
The Grant Schools Council was formed in 1939 to reflect the interests of the Grant Schools. Consists of the headmasters and principals of the Grant Schools, there are currently twenty two members. The Council is highly critical of the education reform in recent years, as they see this as an attempt of the government to destroy these "relic institutes from the former dynasty".