490
1899.
Government and Grant-in-Aid Schools.
CHINESE.
ENGLISH,
PORTUGUESE.
TOTAL.
Schools. Scholars. Schools. Scholars.
Schools. Scholars. Schools. Scholars.
Victoria,
53
3,337
21
8,079
5
153
79
6,569
Villages of Hongkong,... 12
Kowloon,
406
1
80
13
486
15
627
1
78
16
705
Total,.........
80
4,370
23
3,237
153
108
7,760
I am much afraid that unless schools in Victoria are given an increased grant to compensate for the higher rents which landlords now demand, the loss of 15 Chinese Schools and 700 scholars will never be made up. There is a noticeable loss in Kowloon of 6 schools and 280 scholars.
7. The unaided schools for Chinese (ie., Kaifong schools) number 100 with an attendance of 2,195 scholars. One of the schools is a girls school and seven are English schools. The fees vary according to the locality. In Chung Wan (the Central District) the average school fee is fifteen dollars a year whilst in the villages it is as low as three dollars. It may be said that the average school fee in a school in which Chinese is taught is nine dollars and in one in which English is taught
seventeen.
8. SCHOOL FEES.-All the Chinese Grant-in-Aid Schools are free, but with one exception the English Schools charge fees varying from $30 a year to $6. In the English Division of the Belilios Public School a fee of $6 a year is charged, but education in the other Government Schools which are under the Inspectorate is free. It is almost time, in my opinion, to raise the fee at the Belilios Public School to $12 a year, and it is worth considering whether a small fee-say, $3 a year-should not be charged in the Chinese Division which is now very well attended.
9. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE -The Average Daily Attendance in 1899 was 4,418. That in the Grant- in-Aid Schools alone was 3,683. The corresponding figures for 1898 are 4,281 and 3,581. The ratio of the average daily attendance to the average monthly enrolment in 1898 was 81 per cent. and in 1899, 83 per cent. In the Grant-in-Aid Schools the highest average attendance-4,170-was in April; in July the average attendance had dropped to 3,165, or 24 per cent. This decrease was, no doubt, largely due to the plague. In the Chinese Division of the Belilios Public School where the attendance is naturally very quickly affected by epidemics the average attendance dropped from 181 in May to 64 in June and in July stood at 70.
10. In the Chinese Schools in the villages the attendance falls off most remarkably at the end of the year.
After the beginning of the eleventh moon-which, in 1899, fell on the 3rd December-any excuse is good enough to stay away from school and at that time of the year to recommence attending school would be out of the question. It could only be thought of after the New Year. How the attendance is affected during the last three months of the year will be seen from the subjoined Table which shews the ratio that the average daily attendance in November and in December bears to that
in October.
Chinese Schools, Villages, Victoria,
English Schools,.........
October.
.....100
.....100
.....100
November.
December.
75
52
89
79
100
92
The three classes of schools are arranged in the order in which they are examined. After the annual examination there is a temptation in all schools for boys and masters to take things easily; but in the English schools fees are charged and the education given is a special one having a distinct money value; whilst in the Chinese Schools, which boys usually leave unable to read or write anything beyond single words, the money value of the education given is not apparent and parents are naturally laxer in insisting on regular attendance.
11. RESULTS OF THE ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS.-I reported fully on the results of the examina- tions of the Government District Schools in my letter No. 23 of the 28th February. The results of the examinations of the Grant-in-Aid Schools will be found in Tables VI, VII and VIII, in which the actual number of passes and failures in each standard and the percentage for each school will be found.