1920 年,香港政府為了解決日漸增多的學童就學問題,同時成立了官立女子漢文師範學堂和官立漢文男子師範學堂。這兩所學校與1914 年開設的官立實業專科學校漢文師資班和1926 年建立的官立大埔師範學校,共同為當時香港各區漢文學校培養、培訓合格的師資。自1920 年創立到1941 年停辦為止,女師前後一共畢業學生二十一屆二百零二人,為香港基礎教育(特別是女子教育)的發展起了一定的積極作用。由於至今尚未有人對這所早期師訓學校從任何角度進行研究,以致包括教育界的絕大多數港人對它幾乎毫無認識。本文通過搜尋各類零星的文獻資料,希翼盡量理清這所香港歷史上僅有的女子師範學校的發展線索,還其在香港師範教育史上的應有位置,並以此引發同好進一步研究女師及香港教育史的興趣。
The Vernacular Normal School for Women (VNSW) was established in September 1920 by the Hong Kong Government under the governorship of Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs (1919-1925) to solve the problem of shortage of qualified schoolteachers. Together with the Vernacular Normal School for Men (1926-1940) and the Vernacular Tai Po Normal School (1926-1941), the teacher training institutes supplied majority of the qualified pre-service Chinese teachers in Hong Kong during the ensuring two decades. This paper, using primary and secondary sources, discusses the background of establishment, staff and students, curriculum, and closure of the VNSW, as well as its contributions to the progress of Hong Kong's female education.[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]