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ought to be taught by Englishmen and that many classes in Victoria College are too large for an effective lesson. It is also self-apparent from the subjoined Table that when English reading is taught all the way up from Class VIII, Ở to III, A, in 15 out of 21 classes, by Chinese teachers to whom English is an absolutely foreign and uncongenial tongue, the result must be disappointing,
It is a maxim of the theory of education that the best teaching is required in the lowest classes of a school because there the foundation for all after-work is laid, and in its highest classes because there the scholar receives the finishing impressious with which he will go into the business of life. But all the best teaching power of Victoria College appears to be confined to the highest and smallest classes, some of which the vast majority of the scholars never enter, and where the teacher of English History, Shakespeare or Chemistry is perpetually compelled to stop and teach the A B C over again. On this point, I believe I am expressing what the English Masters of the College bitterly feel to a man. Giving an English Master a general superintendence of classes for each of which after all a Chinese Master is responsible, is no remedy for the evil I refer to.
VICTORIA COLLEGE.-RESULTS OF EXAMINATION IN ENGLISH READING, 1891.
Number of Scholars enrolled-1,108.
Number of Scholars presented—697.
No.
Class.
Apparent Average Age of Scholars.
Number Examined.
Number Failed.
Number Passed.
Percentage Passed.
Name of Teacher.
Years.
1
I. A.
17
11
11
100.00
R. M. Jamieson, M.A.
2
I. B.,
17
13
13
100.00
E. J. Boards.
3
II. A.
16
35
35
100.00
J. J. Booth.
4
II. B.,
16
31
29
93.54
A. J. May.
5
III. A.,
16
38
38
100.00
G. A. Woodcock.
6
III. B.,
15
25
25
100.00
W. C. Barlow.
7
IV.
A.,
.15
52
3
49
94.23
Luk King-fo.
8
IV. B.,
15
29
1
28
96.55
Wan Chung-iu.
9
IV. C.,
15
32
1
31
96.87
Chü Tsun-tsing.
10
V. A.
14
49
1
48
97.95
Cheung Ts'oi.
11
V. B.,
14
28
0
28
100.00
Lo Kit.
12
V. C............
14
29
1
28.*
96.55
Chiu Chi-tsung.
13
VI, A.g
15
56
3
53
94.64
Ng I.
14
VI. Bay
14
31
24
77.41
Leung Lam-fan.
15 VI. C.,
15
27
2
25
92.59
Lo Cheung-shiu.
16
VII. A.,.....
14
32
26
81.25
Tsang Chung.
17
VII, B.,....................................
14
30
6
24
80.00
Wong Kok-ü.
18
VII. C.,..............
14
37
2
35
94.59
Sham Tsau-fat.
19
VIII. A.,
13
30
30
100.00
Wong Wai-ho.
Li Man-bing.
20
VIII. B.,
13
29
2
27
93.10
Wong Ming.
Wong Lung-kim.
Pan Yun-fong.
21
VIII. C.,
12
53
1
52
98.11
Leung Kwong-hin.
TOTALS,..
14.65
697
38
659
94.16
6 English and 118 Chinese Teachers.
I have good reason to believe that the English teaching of Victoria College does not, of late, satisfy the Chinese community, for whose particular benefit this School exists. The Chinese, as a rule, do not openly or directly complain of official establishments, but they have an ugly way of expressing their discontent by anonymous libellous epigrams. I believe they have the impression that the teaching of the College is too bookish, too theoretical, not practical enough for the average business requirements of Hongkong. I think I can understand the sub-conscious ideas underlying these views. The Chinese know even better than we do that filling the scholar's head with undigested facts and hard scientific English terms, whilst giving him a mechanical smartness in performing certain mathematical operations, is not education. At the last examination of Victoria College I had a class of big Chinese boys before me who could readily work out stiff problems in Arithmetic in precise and neat English form. But when I had an easy sum like 64,501,007 written on the black board as a test of elementary notation and asked them merely to read or write it off in Chinese, they one and all could not do it. They could write stilted Chinese prose essays and turn rhymes according to the intricate rules of antique Chinese prosody. They could easily read or write off and work fractionally in
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