SUPPLEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOVTM GAZETTE OF 19TH JUNE, 1886. 557
continues to suffer, like all other Schools principally attended by Portuguese children, under irregu- larities of attendance, caused chiefly by poverty and physical infirmities. I referred to this matter in my Report for 1882 and a laudable effort has been made since then by the Director of St. Joseph's College to urge Portuguese parents to send their children to school with greater regularity, but although a great improvement was visible in 1883, hardly any further progress has been made in this direction since then. As no scholar can be admitted to the examination, on the basis of which the annual grant is paid, unless he can show a minimum of 200 daily attendances (of 4 hours at least) during the year, the irregularity of attendances registers itself by the proportion of boys enrolled and examined. The following Table shows the percentage of enrolled Portuguese scholars annually examined duri the last 5 year 'n St. Joseph's College.
Years.
St. Joseph's College.
Number of Scholars ou the Roll.
European Division.
Number of Scholars Examined.
Percentage of Enrolled Scholars Examined.
1881,
1882,
1883,
1881,
1885,
240
111
46.25
256
105
41.01
240
149
62.08
219
141
64.38
186
123
66.12
The above figures show that, since the year 1883, the School has steadily improved in regularity of attendance, but they also show that, since the year 1883, the enrolment of scholars has steadily declined. There is therefore reason to fear that the School, through insisting upon regularity of attendance, lost in popularity, and it may be that the utmost limit which is practicable in the matter has been reached. There is no doubt to my mind that the requirement of 200 daily attendances, which the Grant-in-Aid Scheme insists upon as a preliminary condition to be fulfilled before a grant can be given, presses far more upon the Portuguese Schools of the Colony than upon those attended by any other nationality, owing to the comparative poverty and physical debility of the majority of Portuguese children. There was in former years a glaring insufficiency of School-days, because ecclesiastical Saints-days were formerly allowed to interfere with the working of the School, and this had been remedied in 1882 in consequence of my representations on the subject, but since 1883 a considerable falling off has set in in this respect. The number of School-days, during which St. Joseph's College was at work during the last 5 years, compares rather unfavourably with the School-days kept by the Government Central School, as the subjoined comparative Table shows.
Number of Days on which St. Joseph's College and Central School were taught.
1881,
1882,
1883,
1881,
1882,
Years.
St. Joseph's College. European Division.
Central School.
204
247
234
241
244
236
232
236
227
238
21. The subject of needlework examination in Grant-in-Aid Schools of all Classes requires a few words of comment. The peculiar characteristic of the Hongkong Grant-in-Aid Scheme, as compared with the Elementary Education Act, 1870, on which the Hongkong Scheme is based, is its simplicity, and this simplicity of our Scheme is nowhere more conspicuous than in that portion of the Scheme which provides grants for needlework. As the selection of School-books is left by our Scheme to the unfettered choice of the Managers, so also the selection of the kind of needlework to be submitted for examination in each School and in each Standard is left entirely free. The Scheme simply says, "in Girls Schools, one of the four hours for instruction in the subjects of the several Standards may be assigned to plain needlework, which will have the following values, viz. fair, one dollar; good, one dollar and a half; very good, two dollars." The mode of conducting this needlework examination is left to the discretion of the Inspector. For many years this annual needlework examination was