344
villages the number of scholars, desiring to learn both English and Chinese at the same time, is too small to justify the additional expense involved. The need of a Training School to provide teachers for the Government Schools (outside the Central School) makes itself constantly felt and this need is not likely to be supplied by the training class now formed in the Government Central School.
13. The work of those Government Schools and Aided Schools which give but a Chinese education in the Chinese language, has continued during the year 1886 its usual course, and calls for no special remarks. Special effort has been made, by allotting separate prizes at the annual prize-giving, to extend the teaching of geography and of Chinese composition in these Schools, and some improvement has taken place in these respects. In the case of one Aided School, that at Aberdeen, the unhealthiness of the locality, which compelled the Government to remove the Police Station, has also necessitated the removal of the School to the opposite island of Aplichau. In the case of another Aided School, that of Shamshuipo, where the Aided system year by year shewed very poor results, an attempt has been made to improve the School by the application of the Grant-in-Aid system. The first year's trial did not improve matters, but there is hope that in course of time better results may be obtained.
14. As regards the Grant-in-Aid Schools, the year 1886 has afforded fresh proof that the alter- ations introduced in the Grant-in-Aid Scheme in 1883, principally affecting schools in Class I (i.e. Schools giving a Chinese education in the Chinese language) are beneficial. The subjoined Comparative Table, exhibiting the working of the Revised Scheme (of 1883) which came into operation in the year 1884, clearly proves, as far as Schools in Class I are concerned, that the desire of the Government to reduce the earning power of these inexpensive Schools (whilst increasing the pensum of work to be done under some Standards), and to encourage the teachers to bring more children under instruction in the higher Standards without skipping the lower ones, has been attained.
TABLE SHEWING EFFECTS OF REVISION OF SCHEME (1883) ON SCHOOLS IN CLASS I.
Number of Scholars Examined.
Amount earned by Passes (apart from Capitation Grant and Needle work).
Standards.
1884.
.1885.
1886.
1884.
1885.
1886.
I.,
76
128
271
146
160
462
II,
557
823
652
3,124
3,052
2,496
III.,
470
446
474
2,208
2,196
2,184
IV.,
120
128
138
840
624
640
26
26
44
230
210
320
VI.,
11
24
108.
120
1,251*
1,560
1,590
$6,572
$6,350
6,222
* This reduction was caused by local disturbances unconnected with the Revision of the Scheme.
15. As regards the Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class III there are, this year also, but few special features calling for comment. The history and composition teaching in Schools in Class III continues to show improved results. The facility with which Chinese children, after five years' teaching of the Romanized system, write composition exercises in Romanized Chinese Colloquial, is quite equal to the average attainments of English children in the corresponding English subjects, whilst the same Chinese children would require additional five years' teaching to gain similar facility in expressing their thoughts in the written Chinese character. Nevertheless, I think, so far as practical utility is con- cerned, a child educated in a purely Chinese School in Class I, able to read and write a Chinese letter in the Chinese character, possesses a better training for practical life than the Romanized system, encroaching by the time it demands upon the time absolutely required for the teaching of the written Chinese character, can possibly give, unless the school-age is abnormally extended.
16. The Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class IV continue to improve year by year in organisation and effectiveness of teaching. It is noticeable that the Portuguese community are every year sending more and more children to pass first, for three or four years, through a purely Portuguese School before sending then to an English School. The more this movement extends, the more solid appear to be the results of the English teaching in the higher Standards. As regards the English Schools in Class IV, the Diocesan School and St. Joseph's College require special mention. The Diocesan School