190
Government Schools, having all their expenses provided by Government, have as a rule better and roomier accommodation, superior school materials and a larger staff than the religious Grant-in-Aid Schools. Nevertheless, the latter are annually growing in public favour for the reason that the teachers of Grant-in-Aid Schools, whose salaries or promotion 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 attendance of some Government Schools sank of late so low that eleven Schools had to be closed on 1st January, 1893, in accordance with the rule lately established by the Government, to support no School having fewer than 25 scholars in average attendance, provided that there are in the neighbourhood other Schools within easy reach. In the course of the year two more Government Schools were closed for the same reason, but Grant-in-Aid Schools were in each case ready to step in and fill up the gap. The subjoined Table exhibits the comparative development of Grant-in-Aid Schools and Government Schools since the starting of the Grant-in-Aid scheme of 1873.
Comparative Statistics of Voluntary and Government Schools, 1873 to 1893,
Voluntary Grant-in-Aid
Total.
Religious
Secular
Government Departmental
Year.
Schools.
Schools.
Schools.
Scholars.
Schools.
Scholars.
Schools,
Scholars.
1873,
6
442
30
1,838
36
2,280
1874,
632
30
1,931
39
2,563
1875,.......
9
679
30
1,927
39
2,606
1876,
11
751
30
2,171
41
2,922
1877,.
14
996
30
2,148
44
3,144
1878,........
17
1,021
30
2,101
47
3,122
1879,
19
1,417
31
2,043
50
3,460
1880.
27
1,808
36
2,078
63
3,886
37
2,237
35
1,986
72
4,223
1882,
41
3,068
39
2,114
80
5,182
1888,.
48
3,517
39
2,080
87
5,597
1884,...
55
3,907
35
1,978
90
5,885
1885,
55
4,041
35
1,803
90
5,844
1886.
56
3,951
34
1,893
90
5,844
1887.
61
4,160
33
1,814
94
5,974
1888,.
63
4,325
34
1,933
97
6,258
1889,
69
4,814
35
2,293
104
7,107
1890,.
76
4,656
36
2,514
112
7,170
1891,
81
5,132
36
2,540
117
7,672
1892,..
95
5,655
35
2,622
130
8,277
1893,
102
6,250
24
2,356
126
8,606
6. LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOLS.-The Educational Institutions of the Colony are now so numerous and so widely and evenly distributed that, with the sole exception of the needs of the European residents on the Peak and at Tsin-sha-tsui (Kowloon), every District of the Colony is now supplied with a number of Schools, amply sufficient to meet the existing demand for elementary education. Of course, as the population increases, more elementary Schools will be called for, and the Grant-in-Aid Scheme is capable of meeting such demands in an effective and economic manner. 'But in future it will be rather a question of raising the standard of education in the existing Schools and seeking to create a demand for education among classes holding aloof from education, than of multiplying Schools, as hitherto, with a view to come up to the existing demand for education.
The rapid growth of the secular Chinese Kaifong Schools, running parallel with the recent enormous development of the religious Grant-in-Aid Schools, is a feature of considerable importance. Hitherto the Government considered itself bound to maintain, and pay the entire expenses of, a large number of secular Government Schools, in addition to the pecuniary aid given to an annually increasing number of religious Grant-in-Aid Schools, because the latter, though no propaganda has ever been charged against them, are virtually free to teach as much religion (in a denominational sense) as they please. It was considered necessary, therefore, to maintain in each District of the Colony a sufficient number of secular Government Schools to enable rate-payers, objecting to religious teaching, to send their children to a secular School within easy reach. Of late years the Tung-wa Hospital Committee and private persons among the Chinese community, stimulated no doubt by the extraordinary growth of the Grant-in-Aid Schools but declining to avail themselves of the proffered advantages of the Grant-in- Aid Code, have started numbers of Schools on their own account and in accordance with their own views. These Schools, though as much penetrated by religious teaching as any Grant-in-Aid School, are virtually secular Schools. The rapid growth and wide distribution of these Kaifong Schools enable the Government now to retire, gradually, from the abnormal rôle of acting the school-master and to confine itself, in time, to the more appropriate function of aiding and directing the movement of voluntary efforts for the benefit of local education. I subjoin a Table exhibiting the distribution of secular and religious Schools throughout the Colony.