489
No. 31
1900
HONGKONG.
REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS FOR 1899.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of
His Excellency the Governor.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,
HONGKONG, 12th April, 1900.
SIR, I have the honour to submit the following report on the schools under my supervision during the year 1899.
2. GENERAL STATISTICS.-Table No. V shews the changes which have taken place in the number and class of schools and in the number of scholars during the last ten years, and enables a comparison to be made with the years 1869 and 1879.
3. A reduction in the number of Government Schools was commenced in the year 1892. In that year there were 6 English and 28 Chinese Schools compared with 5 English and 7 Chinese in 1899. The number cannot be reduced any further at present unless the school at Pokfulam, which last year had an average attendance of only 11 scholars, should be closed. I am loth to recommend the closing of an old school; but unless there should appear to be a prospect of an increase to the Chinese population in the neighbourhood, this school ought not to be kept up. Of the 22 schools closed during the last seven years 11 have been replaced by Grant-in-Aid Schools. At one time or another seven other Grant-in-Aid Schools were started with the intention of replacing Government Schools, but five of them are no longer in existence, and two are closed for the time being. Nine of the schools therefore remain unreplaced, and it is much to be regretted that five of them were ever closed. Education by means of Grant-in-Aid Schools is cheaper than education by Government Schools, but it is subject to frequent interruptions owing to difficulties with teachers and landlords, and I believe that if the Governinent Schools referred to had remained open, the attendance at them would by now have more than justified their existence. The remaining schools, four in number, were in small isolated hamlets and should never have been opened.
4. The decrease in the Grant-in-Aid Schools dates from 1895 when there were 83 Chinese Schools open as against 73 in 1899. I am afraid that in the near future the number will be still further reduced by the closing of schools in Victoria unless circumstances change very much. The general increase in rents is pressing severely on some of the schools and certain movements of population are also adversely affecting the schools in the Western Districts.
5. The total number of children on the rolls for the year under review is the largest on record. The number of scholars learning English continues to increase and the number of girls on the rolls is only four less than in the year 1893 in which the highest number occurs.
6. I have inserted in Table V a column which perhaps does not properly belong to it but which is certainly of interest. It shews the ratio which the expenditure on education bears to the general revenue of the Colony. It has now sunk to a very low figure. This is, of course, due in some part to the increase in the attendance and in the fees charged at Queen's College during the last ten years. The fees last year amounted to over $27,000 and it is only natural to wish that soine portion at any rate of this large sum could be diverted to Education and not be lost altogether in the general revenue of the Colony. The net expenditure on Education is now only 1.66 per cent of the revenue.
6. The following Tables enable a more detailed comparison to be drawn between the years 1893 -the last normal year, as the statistics for every year since have been affected by the plague-and 1899.
1893.
Government and Grant-in-Aid Schools.
CHINESE.
ENGLISH.
PORTUGUESE.
TOTAL
Schools. Scholars. Schools.
i
Scholars. Schools. Scholars.
Schools.
Scholars.
Victoria,
68
4,034
20
20
3,014
Villages of Hongkong,
10
273
2
114
186
92
7,234
12
387
Kowloon,
21
932
I
53
2223
985
Total,
99
5,239
23
3,181
4
186.
126
8,606
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