287
No. 23
91.
HONGKONG.
THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1890,
Laid before the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government,
on the 19th June, 1891.
NJ. 57.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,
HONGKONG, 30th May, 1891.
SIR-I have the honour to present herewith the Annual Report on Education for the year 1890. 2. GENERAL EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.--The total number of Educational Institutions of ali descriptions, known to have been at work in the Colony of Hongkong during the year 1890, amounts to 223 Schools with a grand total of 9,644 scholars, constituting a decrease of 37 scholars as compared with the preceding year. More than three-fourths of the whole number of scholars, that is to say 7,659 scholars, attended Schools (114 in number) subject to Government supervision and receiving Government aid in some form or other. The remainder, viz. 109 Schools with 1,985 scholars, are Private Institutions entirely independent of Government supervision or aid, except that those few which are not kept for private emolument are by law exempt from payment of rates and taxes.
3. GENERAL STATISTICS OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.-Apart from the Police School with 390 scholars (viz. 31 Europeans, 217 Indians and 142 Chinese,) and the West Point Reformatory with 99 scholars (72 Chinese and 27 non-Chinese), both of which Schools are exempt from the control of the Education Department, the total number of Schools, subject to Government supervision and examination, amounted in the year 1890 to 112, as compared with 63 in 1880, and 24 in 1870. The total number of scholars, enrolled in these Schools during the year 1890, amounted to 7,170 as compared with 3,886 in 1880 and 1,302 in 1870. It appears therefore that the number of Schools and scholars under examination by the Inspector of Schools has been nearly doubled within the last ten years.
There has been an increase of 39 Schools and 2,584 scholars during the ten years from 1870 to 1880, and an increase of 49 Schools and 3,284 scholars during the ten years from 1880 to 1890. We have therefore evidence of a satisfactorily steady increase of Schools and scholars from decade to decade, which increase followed in the wake of the annual increase of the population.
4. PROGRESS DURING THE LAST THREE YEARS.-Applying the same comparison to the last few years, it appears that the number of Schools and scholars under the supervision of the Education Department rose from 97 Schools with 6,258 scholars in 1888, to 104 Schools with 7,107 scholars in 1889 and to 112 Schools with 7,170 scholars in 1890. It will be seen from these figures that, although there was a steady increase of Schools under Government supervision from year to year, yet the annual increase of scholars has fallen off, from 849 in 1888 to 63 in 1890, that is to say the attendance was unusually bad in 1890. The peculiar unhealthiness of the year, and especially the prevalence of influenza at the beginning of spring and the long continuance of fever among children, are the principal causes of this extraordinary decrease of attendances.
5. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS.-Of the 7,170 scholars in 112 Schools under examination by the Inspector of Schools, as many as 4,656 scholars attended 76 Voluntary Schools established by the local Missions, both Protestant and Catholic, whilst 2,514 scholars attended 36 secular Government Schools. The latter are so distributed all over the Colony that in every district there is at least one secular Government School within easy reach of any parent objecting to send his children to denominational Christian Schools. Such objections are, how- ever, extremely rare, for, as a general rule, the Chinese, indifferent as to the religious influences of the Voluntary Schools, look to the personal character and scholastic competency of the teacher rather than to the christian or secular character of the School.
6. SITUATION OF SCHOOLS.-The above-mentioned 112 Schools under the supervision of the Education Department are scattered over all parts of the Colony. In the District of Victoria, there are 71 Schools with 5,856 scholars. The villages of Hongkong are provided with 24 Schools attended by 789 scholars, whilst in the villages of Kowloon there are 17 Schools with 525 scholars. Where the population is densest, as in Saiyingpun, Sheungwan and Chungwan, the Schools are placed most closely together, but even in the Village Districts there is no hamlet, be it ever so small, that has not a School within easy reach. Every village with a population sufficient to send 20 children to School has a school of its own. The only drawback is that the School-houses are, with rare exceptions, badly suited for the purpose and do not afford sufficient accommodation for the number of children who ought to go to school.