Fond CoE - Colleges of Education (COE) Group Records

The founding of Northcote College of Education was originated from the 1935 Report on Education in Hong Kong and a recommendation laid in 1938 by a Committee on the training of teachers. In 1935, an Inspector of Schools, Edmund Burney, visited Hong Kong and made an enquiry into the local education system. His Report on Education in Hong Kong, also known as the Burney Report, criticised several aspects of Hong Kong's educational policy such as the neglect of primary education and the inadequate training in Vernacular schools in which Chinese was the medium of instruction. One of the recommendations raised at the time, was that it might be necessary to have a new Government Normal School, or considerable additions to the existing premises of the Technical Institute for the training of teachers. In 1938, the Governor, Sir Geoffry Northcote, took up this endeavour in the improvement of teachers' training further by appointing a Committee to review the training of teachers for both English and Vernacular schools. The key recommendation of the Committee was that the Government should act immediately in the provision of a teacher training centre for the training of male and female teachers for both Anglo-Chinese and Vernacular schools - as a result the Teachers Training College was opened on 18 September 1939. The College was housed temporarily in the former Medical Officer's quarters at the old Government Civil Hospital at Hospital Road. It offered a two-year course and had two classes: an Anglo-Chinese class taught in the medium of English and a vernacular class taught in Cantonese. In its first year of operation, each class had 24 students including 12 male students and 12 female students.

The new building of the Teachers Training College at Bonham Road was officially opened on 23 April 1941 by the Governor, Sir Geoffry Northcote, and since then the College became known as the Northcote Training College. The College, however, was forced to close in December the same year because of the Japanese invasion. The Bonham Road building was initially used as the headquarters of the Japanese Military Police but was later mutilated by looters with all of its fittings and equipment removed during the war. Despite of great difficulties in replacing the equipment, the College reopened soon after the war on 13 March 1946.

In order to meet the demand for more trained teachers for the rapidly increasing school population, the College expanded greatly and moved yet again to new premises at Sassoon Road in April 1962, and was officially opened by the Governor, Sir Robert Black, on 31 May 1962. This new premise consisted of a hostel which could accommodate half the full-time enrolment. The vacated Bonham Road building was then used by the United College of The Chinese University of Hong Kong until it moved to Shatin in December 1971, and after considerable renovation reverted to College use and served as an annexe to the College in December 1973. On 18 October 1967, the three government Training Colleges including Northcote Training College, Grantham Training College and Sir Robert Black Training College, were renamed Colleges of Education. The former title, Training College, implied that the function of the colleges was merely to impart basic skills. The three colleges by then, had a much wider function and scope on the further education of students with the introduction of new full-time courses and the discontinuance of one-year courses. A range of student interests and activities were being broadened and subjects were also being studied to a higher level. In consideration of all these developments, Northcote Training College changed its name to Northcote College of Education.

Pursuant to the recommendation of the Education Commission Report No. 5, the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) was formally established on 25 April 1994. Meanwhile, Northcote College of Education, Grantham College of Education, Sir Robert Black College of Education, the Hong Kong Technical Teachers' College and the Institute of Language in Education, the five institutions which were to be amalgamated into the HKIEd, continued their part in delivering teacher education programmes until the end of their last academic year. On 1 September 1994, HKIEd formally took over the administration of the five institutions from the Education Department and amalgamated them into a new, unified autonomous institution; on the same day the campuses and annexes of the five institutions were converted into campuses of the HKIEd until the Tai Po campus was completed in October 1997.

The Grantham Training College was founded in September 1951 to focus on the training of primary school teachers. The College operated in the King’s College campus at Bonham Road for one year, and then moved to the Gascoigne Road premises. At that time, only 61 places were available. After completing the one-year full-time program, students could obtain a Teacher Certificate.

In 1953, the College's enrollment increased to 150 students, including 25 boarding students from the Rural Training College (a sister institution that later merged with the Grantham Training College).

In 1960, to cope with the ever-increasing needs for teacher training, the Hong Kong Government further established a third college in the site of the Lo Fu Ngam Primary School as an extension of Grantham. One year later, the new college became independent and was renamed Sir Robert Black Training College.

The Grantham Training College was renamed Grantham College of Education in 1967. By 1982, Grantham obtained an annexe – a commercial building in Mongkok. Following the recommendation by the Education Commission in its Report No. 5 (1992) and the passage of the Hong Kong Institute of Education Ordinance through the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in March 1994, five pre-existing teacher education institutions including Grantham College of Education were merged to form the Hong Kong Institute of Education on 25 April 1994. The College’s two campuses at Gascoigne Road and Argyle Centre, known as Grantham Campus I and Grantham Campus II, remained in use until the Institute moved to its new Tai Po Campus in October 1997. However, the former Grantham Campus I in Gascoigne Road was the only building retained for use as the Institute’s Town Centre, where courses for part-time students and practising teachers were operated due to its convenient location.

Established in September 1960, the Sir Robert Black College of Education was originally known as The Third Training College and operated as a branch of the Grantham Training College. It was founded to address the increasing demand for teachers resulting from the Primary School Expansion Programme initiated by the Government in 1954. At that time. the College had a staff of 19 and an enrolment of 191 students.

In September 1961, it became an independent College and in October, it was renamed after His Excellency the Governor Sir Robert Black, G.C.M.G., O.B.E. and officially known as Sir Robert Black Training College.

On 18 October 1967, the College, Northcote Training College and Grantham Training College were renamed Colleges of Education. The decision to adopt this change was made because the former title, “training college,” implied that the colleges were primarily concerned with providing basic skills training. In fact, the colleges performed a much broader educational role, including the further education of students, and offered subjects at an increasingly advanced level.

Effective 1 September 1994, the College was merged with four other Colleges of Education to form part of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (now officially known as the Education University of Hong Kong). Following the merger, the two campuses continued to operate under the Institute until its relocation to Tai Po in October 1997.

The Hong Kong Technical Teachers’ College was established in September 1974. It evolved from the Department of Technical Teacher and Workshop Instructor Training of the Morrison Hill Technical Institute, which ceased operations after September 1974.

The increasing awareness of the importance of technical education in Hong Kong led to the establishment of technical institutes and technical and prevocational schools, as well as the expansion of existing technical and commercial sections in secondary schools. These developments, together with the continuing expansion of secondary education, created a demand for teachers of technical and commercial subjects who were not only experts in their respective fields but also highly competent instructors with the knowledge and ability to apply the latest teaching methods and educational resources.

The principal objectives of the College were to enhance the quality of technical education and to ensure an adequate supply of properly trained and fully qualified teachers of technical and commercial subjects for technical institutes, technical and prevocational schools, and the technical and commercial sections of secondary schools.

The College also provided training courses for technical instructors and trainers.

Before universal junior secondary education was introduced in Hong Kong in 1978, it was anticipated that the consequent increase in the number of mixed-ability classes might have a significant negative effect on language attainment. To provide for this situation, a number of coordinated measures - the 'language package' - were planned to maintain and raise the standards of Chinese and English in schools. These measures were approved by the Governor-in-Council in June, 1980 and April, 1981, and described as "conceptually sound and reasonably resourced" in a report made in November, 1982 by an independent Panel of Visitors which had undertaken an overall review of the education system in Hong Kong.

The measures included the establishment of a Chinese Language Foundation, the provision of extra teachers for remedial language teaching, the revision of the primary and secondary school language syllabuses, the installation in schools of wire-free induction loop systems to provide pupils with good models of pronunciation and usage, the carrying out of research projects and the establishment of an Institute of Language in Education (ILE).

The ILE was established to raise the professional standards of the teaching and learning of Chinese and English as subjects, and the use of these languages for teaching and learning across the curriculum. It began operation in September 1982 in Park-In Commercial Centre (柏裕商業中心) at Dundas Street, Mongkok. The ILE was a Division of the Education Department. The Director of ILE was an Assistant Director of Education directly responsible to the Senior Assistant Director of Services and Institutions. All staff members of the ILE were members of the Education Department and civil servants of the Hong Kong Government.

In February 1991, the ILE moved from Dundas Street, Mongkok, to premises at 2 Hospital Road on Hong Kong Island, which were two converted secondary schools, Yu To Sang Memorial Secondary School (余道生紀念中學) and Helen Liang Memorial Secondary School (梁文燕紀念中學), linked physically by two bridges. The new premises were officially opened by the then Director of Education, Mr. Li Yuet-ting on 12 April 1991.

Over the years the range of courses and the number of staff at the ILE have consistently diversified and grown. In the first academic year, the ILE only offered courses for non-graduate Primary teachers of Chines and English with a staff of 24. By 1994, the ILE had been running courses for Primary teachers of Chinese and English, Secondary teachers (both graduate and non-graduate) of Chinese and English, Panel Chairpersons of Chinese and English, Primary and Secondary teachers and would-be teachers of Putonghua, and Secondary teachers of subjects other than Chinese or English but who use one or other of these languages as medium of instruction. The number of staff had also increased to 108.

On 1 September 1994, the ILE was amalgamated with Northcote College of Education, Grantham College of Education, Sir Robert Black College of Education, and the Hong Kong Technical Teachers' College into the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), pursuant to the recommendation of the Education Commission Report No.5. Its premises at 2 Hospital Road were converted to Bonham Campus of the HKIEd and remained in use until the completion of the purpose-built campus in Tai Po in October 1997.

The Education Department was officially established in 1865 to oversee the administration, funding and development of primary, secondary and teacher education in Hong Kong.

As a core government department, it directly managed and financed the government teacher training sector, establishing Northcote College of Education (1939), Grantham College of Education (1951), Sir Robert Black College of Education (1960), the Hong Kong Technical Teachers College (1974), and the Institute of Language in Education (1982).The Department retained direct administrative and policy oversight of these five institutions until 1994, when the colleges were amalgamated into the autonomous Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd).

In January 2003, the Education Department was dissolved and merged with the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) to streamline the government's education policy and administration.