277
$16.34 per scholar; in six Government Anglo-Chinese Schools (charging no fees) $4.71 and in 14 Grant-in-Aid Schools (in Class IV) $5.16 per scholar. To bring the comparison home more closely, and to compare only Schools which give exactly the same kind of teaching and charge fees, I subjoin a Table shewing in the case of the five principal Schools in Hongkong which give a secondary educa- tion in English, the nationality of scholars, the staff, the subjects taught in the highest classes, the number of scholars enrolled, the total cost to Government per School, and the cost to Government per scholar enrolled in 1889.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN Hongkong, in 1889.
Number of
Cost to Government
Cost to Govern-
No.
Name of School.
Nationality of Scholars.
Staff.
Subjects taught in the Highest Classes of the School.
Scholars Enrolled in 1889.
in 1889.
Total.
ment per Scholar enrolled.
1 Victoria College. .......
Mostly Chinese or Eu- rasian, few Portu- guese, very few Eu- ropeans.
9 Europeans, 14 Chinese.
10 Europeans,
2 Chinese.
2
St. Joseph's College,
Mostly Portuguese,
few Chinese, very few Europeans.
3 Diocesan Home and Or- Mostly Eurasian, few
phanage School.
Europeans and Chi-
3 Europeans, 1 Chinese.
nese,
4 Hongkong Public School, Nearly all Europeans,
very few Portu- guese, no Chinese.
5
Victoria English Schools, Nearly all Portuguese, few Europeans and Chinese.
Shakespeare, Mensuration, Trigo- nometry. Latin. History, Alge- bra, Euclid (I & II), Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic, Chinese.
Shakespeare, Mensuration, Trigo- nometry, French, History, Ani- mal Physiology, Algebra, Eu- clid (I to VI), Grammar, Book. keeping, Physical Geography.
English Composition, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, History, Physical Geography, Animal Physiology, Book-keeping, Eu- clid (I & II), Algebra, Chinese.
2 Europeans. English Composition, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, History, Physical Geography, Euclid (I & II), Algebra, Latin, French,
English Composition. Arithmetic, Geography History, Physical Geography, Euclid (I & II), Algebra, Book-keeping, French.
3 Europeans, 1 Chinese.
919
$15,018.20 (exclusive of
$16.34
cost of
Buildings and repairs).
409
$1,816.47
$4.41
143
$788.04
$5.51
58
$341.01
$5.10
182
$652.83
$3.58
7. NATURE OF THE EDUCATION GIVEN. As to the nature of the education given in the Schools under the supervision of the Education Department, no material change has taken place in the year 1889. In the purely Chinese Schools there is now a general tendency to add Arithmetic as an extra subject, as well as Geography, to the ordinary pensum of these Schools and ere long we shall find the standard of education given in these Schools, the vast majority of which are Christian Schools under Missionary agency, considerably raised above the type of an ordinary Chinese Village School, which was their former character. In the semi-Chinese Schools, giving a European education in the Chinese language, the use of the Romanized system is gradually becoming confined to the lower classes, and the teaching of classical Chinese is making a steady advance from year to year.
In the Anglo-Chinese and purely English Schools the demand for a higher, secondary, English education has continued to increase in 1889, and manifested itself in a larger proportion of scholars taking up the special subjects of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. There is a general desire in these secondary Schools to have a seventh Standard added to the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, as the highest class in each of these Schools is now quite beyond the reach of the Scheme. This question will be taken up on the occasion of the next revision of the Scheme. Among the 104 Schools with a total of 7,107 scholars under the supervision of the Education Department, the proportion of Schools giving a Chinese, semi- Chinese, Portuguese, Anglo-Chinese, or English education in 1889 was as follows:--giving a Chinese education in the Chinese language, 80 Schools with 4,148 scholars, as compared with 77 Schools and 3,986 scholars in 1888; giving a European education in the Chinese language, 3 Schools with 160 scholars, as compared with 2 Schools and 110 scholars in 1888; giving a European education in the Portuguese language, 4 Schools with 236 scholars, as compared with 3 Schools and 211 scholars in 1888; giving an Anglo-Chinese education in the English language, with Chinese teaching in addition, 10 Schools with 1,834 scholars, as compared with 8 Schools and 1,158 scholars in 1888; giving an English education, exclusively in English, 7 Schools with 729 scholars as compared with 7 Schools and 793 scholars in 1888. The increase that has taken place in 1889 amounts therefore to 3 Chinese Schools with 162 scholars, 1 semi-Chinese School with 50 scholars, 1 Portuguese School with 25 scholars, and 2 Anglo-Chinese Schools, with 676 scholars; but against the increase of Anglo-Chinese scholars there appears to be a set-off in form of a decrease of 64 scholars under purely English instruc- tion.
The Portuguese Schools, of which there are now four at work, are making steady progress and bring now children into the higher standards. But the use of the Macao colloquial, with its slovenly habit of substituting in Chinese fashion adverbial phrases for the several tenses and moods of verbs, and in other ways turning the Portuguese language into a Chinese-like patois, causes the