No 11.
117
No.97
HONGKONG.
REPORT OF THE HEAD MASTER OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE FOR 1896.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
QUEEN'S COLLEGE,
19th January, 1897.
SIR,—I have the honour to forward the Annual Report on Queen's College for the year 1896.
1. The total number on the Roll was 988. In 1895 the attendances had to a great extent recovered from the depletion of 1894; but in 1896, instead of a continuance of this improvement, there was a relapse partly due to the recurrence of Bubonic Plague. There was however no evidence of panic, such as was manifest in 1894, the absence of several boys being attributable to the removal of families from the colony to escape sanitary precautions, not from fear of the Plague itself, as was reported early in the year to the Inspector of Schools by several School Managers. The admissions and re-admissions were in each quarter of the year quite up to the average; which would be incon- sistent with the idea that Chinese had in 1896 the same fear of Hongkong as a plague centre that they had in 1894.
2. The falling-off ($3,000) in Revenue from Fees is quite out of proportion to the diminution in attendance referred to above, and is largely attributable to the reduction of the Second and Third Classes by one half, through causes not under my control. It will take two or three years for the attendances in the Upper School, where the Fees are highest, to attain their former figure. An economy of $350 was effected by closing two classrooms and dispensing with the services of a Tem- porary Assistant and two Monitors.
3. On the recommendation of the Governing Body, the Section known as Chinese School, (i.e. the classes in which for 36 years Chinese boys were taught to compose in their native language, and - to read and understand their native literature) was abolished. By the removal of these ten hours a week devoted to the study of Chinese by the Lower and Preparatory Schools, an increase of three hours a week for the acquisition of English was obtained for the Second and Third Classes and Lower School. It was not possible to increase the hours in the First Class, where with Special Classes, 311⁄2 hours a week were already assigned to English, and where the scholars for eight years had been exempt from Chinese studies. It should not be forgotten that the adoption of this course was formally recommended by the Inspector of Schools in 1887, and mooted by him even earlier.
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4. To meet the difficulty of ignorance of their native language on the part of Chinese boys, the Governing Body proposed an Entrance Examination; but after a short experience, the manifest tendency to debar admissions altogether, led to the removal of this restriction.
5. From the balance of the salaries of the Native Teachers in Chinese School, after the payment to them of pensions, the Governing Body approved and recommended the increased scale of salaries for Native Assistants in English School, the importance of which has been urged in my Reports for A new post of Clerk was created, to which Mr. U. HANG-KAM, A. A. was appointed; the duties of clerk baving previously been discharged by the First and Second Chinese Assistants upon whose time it was found to make too great a demand.
6. A lecture on Education in Burma, delivered before the Rangoon Teachers' Association last spring, by a Chinese gentleman, Assistant Secretary to the Chief Commissioner, shows that the educa tional problems that are engaging attention in Hongkong, are not unknown elsewhere. His words are :-
"The constitution of the Educational Department in Burma dates only from 1866. "One generation has passed away, and literary culture does not appear to be prized among "the natives of Burma, beyond the walls of the school or college. Further the students, "who are supposed to know English, and who have passed high University examinations "are unable either to speak or write fairly well in that language."