present charged in these Schools be raised. Let there be a corresponding increase in the value of passes, under the Grant-in-Aid system, as regards Schools which give an English education in the English language with Chinese teaching in addition. Then let those Schools be handed over, buildings and all, to the exclusive management of a representative Municipal School-Board, the Government paying thenceforth only an annual grant as earned each year under the provisions of the revised Grant-in-Aid Scheme.
14. This may, at first sight, appear to be a revolutionary scheme, but I believe it is but fore- shadowing the line of development which the natural growth of the educational system of our Colony is sure to follow sooner or later. The same tendency is at work in other Colonies where the same Grant-in-Aid system has been worked, as here, side by side with Government Schools. For instance, at the prize-giving of a Grant-in-Aid School in Colombo, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. Sir JOHN DOUGLAS, made lately the following remarks as reported by the Ceylon Times of 20th December, 1883. "We are having it in contemplation to withdraw, as far as the Government is concerned, from any active interference with education, otherwise than education in the vernacular, in these large centres of population, and therefore it becomes of special interest to us to ascertain whether institutions like this, which are worked upon the Grant-in-Aid system, are ready and able, when the Government Schools are discontinued, to take the place of the institutions that we have been supporting entirely at the cost of the Government.”
15. The proportion of boys to girls enrolled in the Schools under Government supervision, is also a point requiring to be kept in view. In the year 1883 there were on the rolls of these Schools 4120 boys and 1477 girls, as compared with 2574 boys and 578 girls enrolled in the year 1878, and 1978 boys and 304 girls enrolled in those Schools in the year 1873. (This shows a satisfactory progress made in extending education gradually also to the female population of the Colony. And again I have to observe that the progress thus made is chiefly due to the working of the Grant-in-Aid system. (Of 28 Girls-schools under the supervision of the Government, only one is a Government School. All the others are denominational Schools, started by the various Missionary Societies in the Colony, and now subsidized by the Government on the principle of payment for definite results. But although much progress has undoubtedly been made in the direction of extending education to the girls of the Colony, much remains to be done. The proportion of male and female children of school-going age living in the Colony is, according to the census of 1881, tolerably equal. Yet the above given figures show that the proportion of boys to girls in school was, in 1883, about 1 girl to 3 boys. This is a great improve- ment, as compared with former years, the relative proportion of girls to boys in school having been 1 to 4 in 1878, and 1 to 6 in 1873. Nevertheless it appears from this very likely that a vast majority of the 12,980 children of school-going age, who remain at present in the Colony uneducated (Table XVI), consists of girls.) If they are to be brought under the influence of education, an effort will have to be made to bring all the purchased servant-girls, who as a rule remain uneducated, by compulsion into the Schools of the Colony.
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16. As regards the nature of the education given in the various Schools at work in the Colony in year 1883, I am able to give this year tolerably complete statistics, as through the courtesy of the Registrar General Mr. STEWART, a census of Chinese Schools, not under Government supervision, was taken through the District-watchmen. Including thus all known Schools in the Colony, viz. 190 Schools with 7758 scholars, the case appears to be as follows. There were, in the year 1883, as many as 159 Schools at work giving 5681 scholars a Chinese education in the Chinese language. In about one third of this number of Schools, however, the Chinese education given is of a Christian character. There were further 15 Schools with 725 scholars giving an English education in the English language. There were 9 Schools with 991 scholars giving an English education in the English language with Chinese teaching in addition. There were 3 Schools with 197 scholars giving a European education in the Portuguese language. There were 3 Schools with 146 scholars giving a European education in the Chinese language. There was, finally, 1 School with 18 scholars giving a European education in the French language.
17: As regards the Government Central School, the report of the Headmaster speaks for itself and leaves little for me to add. The examination held by myself, on the principles indicated in last year's Report, showed that the School has made good progress.) Out of 365 boys examined in the English Division of the School, as many as 353 or 97 per cent. passed. Comparing the detailed results obtained this year with those of the previous year, I find special progress has been made, in the year 1883, in the teaching of grammar and in map-drawing and geography. But whilst the results obtained in all branches of the teaching given in the School are highly creditable to the Headmaster and his staff, and exceed in the aggregate those of the previous year, there has been some falling off in arithmetic (in Classes V, VII, VIII and IX), in translation from Chinese into English (in Classes II, VI and VII) and in dictation-writing (in Classes I, IV, VIII and X). As regards the Chinese Division of the School, there has also been some improvement, as compared with the results of the previous year, for out of 321 boys examined, 223 or 69 per cent. passed. This apparently low percentage of passes is on the whole satisfactory, all circumstances considered, because but little time can be spared for Chinese studies. The examination of the Anglo-Chinese Department showed somewhat better results than last