572
+
through the full ten years course, had previously been under instruction for some 3 or 4 years, all that can be said is, that the official returns, such as they are, indicate that some 10,076 boys and 11,962 girls remained imperfectly educated and that probably half of this number escaped the educa- tion net altogether and may be put down as remaining uneducated.
12. RESULTS OF THE ANNUAL EXAMINATION.-The work done by Queen's College in the year 1895 has been examined and reported upon (Government Gazette of 15th February, 1896,) by independent special examiners appointed by the Board of Governors. As regards the Depart mental Schools, Tables II. to VII., appended to this Report, supply the most important particulars. The detailed results of the annual examination of the Grant-in-Aid Schools will be found summarized in Tables X. and XI., where the grants allowed, and the percentage of scholars passed in each School, in 1895, are stated and compared with the results of the preceding year, and in Table XII. which records the percentage of passes gained in each subject. I subjoin, however, some special observations with regard to some of these Schools.
13. BELILIOS PUBLIC SCHOOL. The annual examination of this Institution shewed highly satisfactory results. The staff of both divisions (Upper and Lower School) has been considerably increased and the school materials have been improved by the addition of special helps for object lessons. These improvements have been effected without exceeding the limits of expenditure fixed when retrenchment was aimed at to the verge of efficiency. In the Upper (European) School the (attendance has steadily increased, indicating the growing popularity of this Institution, and the lessons given) (in addition to the ordinary English subjects) in singing, instrumental music and physical drill are much appreciated by the parents of the children. It is only to be regretted that Chinese parents who send their sons to English Schools have not yet woke up to the recognition of the bearing which an English education has upon the true interests of their daughters.
14. DEPARTMENTAL DISTRICT SCHOOLS.-The number of these Governinent Schools has been con- siderably reduced within the last few years with a view to retrenchment. There are, in the first instance, 5 Anglo-Chinese Departmental Schools left, giving to the Chinese residing in the outskirts of the town (Saiyingpun and Wantsai) and in the principal villages (Wongnaichung, Stanley and Yaumati) the opportunity of securing for their sons an elementary English education, coupled with Chinese classical teaching. The teachers of these Schools are natives who have had no special technical training. The examination shewed, however, fairly good results in three of these Schools. If volun- tary effort would take up the work in these places, the Government might well confine its efforts in the sphere of Anglo-Chinese education to the working of Queen's College. Besides these five Anglo- Chinese Schools, there are, in the second instance, six small Departmental Government Schools, giving a purely Chinese education, at a very low cost, in isolated villages (Tanglungchau, (Hakka), Shekou, Wongmakok, Aplichau, and Pokfulam) where there is no other School within a radius of three miles. These Schools which, with one exception, are located in cottages of the poorest sort, are doing useful work and are much appreciated by the poor people for whose benefit the Government, in the absence of private effort, maintains these Schools.
15. GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS. To replace Schools swept away by the plague, ten new Schools were started, under the provisions of the Grant-in-Aid Code, at the beginning of the year 1895. All -through the year (1895) the 106 Grant-in-Aid Schools laboured (with the exception of one School) successfully to efface the injuries they had received through the plague in 1894. Unfortunately, within a few weeks before the examinations were held, the epidemic of fever, above referred to, once more thinned the attendance and seriously impaired the monetary results of the examinations. However, with an enrolment of 5,656 and an average attendance of 3,736 scholars, these Schools brought as many as 3,553 scholars under examination. The results were, in the Chinese Schools most affected by disease, below the average of former years, whilst in the Schools for European children a considerable advance was made in the matter of efficiency and earning power. The sum total earned by the 105 Schools as grants for the year 1895 ($18,187.62 paid to the Managers and $6,062.02 paid to the Teachers) was, however, not only within the limit of the amount voted by the Legislature, but left the sum of $1,007.61 to lapse into the Treasury. The Diocesan School, St. Joseph's College and the Victoria English Schools specially distinguished themselves by a considerable increase in the proportion of scholars brought under examination in the higher (secondary) subjects, and the results obtained in mathematics and in English composition gave evidence of methodical and painstaking class teaching. The British Kowloon College, after passing through serious reverses, entered in the fall of the year into regular and steady work, which yielded at the annual examination good results, such as encourage the hope that the institution will soon be able to dispense with the special help which was necessary to tide it over its initial difficulties. As to those Grant-in-Aid Schools which give a Chinese education in the Chinese language, and contribute, though much needed by the local Chinese population, com- paratively little aid towards a promotion of modern civilization, it has been recognized by the Govern ment that, though the local Chinese Girls Schools require yet to be multiplied, the existing Chinese Boys Schools are now sufficiently numerous to answer all the claims for a purely Chinese education which the native population may justly put forth. But, whilst continuing therefore those purely Chinese Schools which have already been admitted to participation in the privileges of the Grant-in-
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