No.
HONGKONG.
THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1891,
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency
the Governor, on the 16th November, 1892.
365
29
92
No. 50.
EDUCATION Department,
HONGKONG, 30th May, 1892.
SIR,-I have the honour to present to you the Annual Report on Education in Hongkong for the year 1891.
2. GENERAL EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.-The total number of Educational Institutions known to have been at work in the Colony of Hongkong during the year 1891 amounts to 215 Schools with a grand total of 10,119 scholars under instruction during the year. This constitutes an increase of 475 scholars as compared with the preceding year. Among those 10,119 scholars, there were 8,103 scholars attending 119 Schools under the supervision of the Government and receiving State aid in some form or other, whilst 2,016 scholars attended 96 Private Schools independent of Government supervision or aid, excepting the fact that those few of them 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 361 scholars of mature age and the West Point Reformatory attended by 70 young scholars, both of which Schools are exempt from the control of the Education Department, the total number of Schools subject to supervision and examination by the Education Department amounted in the year 1891 to 117 Schools, as compared with 72 Schools under the Education Department in the year 1881 and 26 Schools in the year 1871. The total number of scholars enrolled in those 117 Schools during the year 1891 amounted to 7,672 scholars, as compared with 4,372 scholars in the year 1881 and 1,292 scholars in the year 1871. There was thus, during the decade 1871 to 1881, an increase of 46 Schools with 3,080 scholars, and a similar increase of 45 Schools with 3,300 scholars during the decade from 1881 to 1891. The population of the Colony increased, from 121,985 people in 1871, to 160,402 in 1881 and to 224,814 in 1891, showing an increase of 38,427 souls in the first decade and nearly double of that in the second decade, viz., 64,412 souls. It is clear, therefore, that the ratio of increase in schools and scholars, during the last twenty years, has been lagging far behind that of the rapidly increasing population of the Colony.
4. Progress DURING THE LAST THREE YEARS.-Comparing the statistics of individual years, I find that the number of schools and scholars under the supervision of the Education Department rose from 104 Schools with 7,107 scholars in the year 1889, to 112 Schools with 7,170 scholars in 1890, and to 117 Schools with 7,672 scholars in 1891. The annual increase of scholars amounted in the year 1888 to 284 scholars, in the year 1889 to 849 scholars, in 1890 to 63 scholars and in 1891 to 502 scholars. The annual rate of increase, unusually high in the year 1889 and exceptionally low in 1890, was therefore rather good in the year 1891.
5. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS.-Referring now to those 117 Schools, with 7,672 scholars, which were under the supervision of the Education Department in the year 1891, there were as many as 5,132 scholars attending 81 Voluntary Grant- in-Aid Schools where they received a Christian education, whilst 2,540 scholars attended 36 Depart mental Government Schools receiving a secular education. The secular Government Schools are all free schools with the exception of two (Victoria College and Girls' Central School), the fees of which are, however, below the average of similar Voluntary Schools. The latter offer Chinese instruction free of charge but require for English instruction school fees ranging from one to three dollars a month for each scholar, with extra charges for certain special subjects. The secular Government Schools having all their expenses provided by Government are, as a rule, better housed and have better school materials and a larger and better paid staff than the religious Voluntary Schools. Nevertheless the latter are annually growing in public favour for the reason that the teachers of Voluntary Schools, whose salaries depend upon the efficiency and results of their teaching, are as a rule compelled by self-interest to be more painstaking in attending to the progress of each individual scholar. The subjoined Table exhibits the comparative development of Voluntary and Government Schools since the starting of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme of 1873.