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Note-
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9. The District Schools are :-
1.-Schools teaching the English Language and Western Knowledge to Chinese
Boys, hereinafter called ANGLO-chinese DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
The words "Western Knowledge" are used for want of a better term to express a knowledge of history and geography, the natural sciences, and modern civilization.
These are four in number-one at Saiyingpun in the West of the City of Victoria, two in the East at Wanchai and Wong-nei-chung, and one on the Kow- loon side at Yaumati. The masters are Chinese. The instruction, which is free, does not go beyond the four lowest Standards, and approximates to that given in the Preparatory and Lower Divisions of Queen's College. The boys usually acquire a fair knowledge of Arithmetic, and have read through (and sometimes know by heart) the School Readers; they seldom can speak or understand English Col- loquial. With the exception of Wong-nei-chung, these Schools are always full, especially in the lower Standards. The majority of the scholars are sons of small shop-keepers, but about one-third belong to the labouring classes. Most of them before joining have attended some Private Vernacular School, but have obtained nothing more than a very superficial knowledge of their Written Language: very few have studied in the Vernacular District Schools next described or in the Vernacular Grant Schools.
II.—Schools teaching the Chinese Written Language and Western Knowledge in the Chinese Vernacular to Chinese Children, hereinafter called VERNACULAR DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
Of these, six are for boys, namely, two attached to the Anglo-Chinese District Schools above described at Saiyingpun and Wanchai, and one in each of the outly ing villages of Sheko, Pokfulum, Aplichau, and Tanglungchau.
The instruction given in these schools is free, and is very similar to that given in Private Vernacular Schools. Beginning with the Trimetrical and Thousand- Character and certain other Classics, which are learned by heart, the scholars are taught first to read and then to write the characters. Subsequently they learn their meanings, first as isolated characters and afterwards in their context. Unfor- tunately they nearly all leave school before getting as far as this, that is to say, unable to read. A little Arithmetic is taught. Geography is taught in the higher classes, but not hitherto in such a way as to be of much practical use. The boys who attend this class of schools are usually sons of labourers and mechanics, and have to begin to earn a living at about ten or eleven years of age.
The shortcomings of these schools are in the main those of the Vernacular Grant Schools described below.
There is also one Vernacular District School for Chinese girls-the Chinese Division of the Belilios Girl School. It is conducted on precisely the same lines as the boy schools, except that the knowledge of Chinese acquired is greater: this is partly due to an able teacher, and partly because the girls spend a longer term of years at school than the boys. Chinese desirous of giving an extended education to their children would be content with the Vernacular for their daughters, but would teach their sons English as well, curtailing their education in the Ver- nacular in order to do so.
III-A School giving an English Education to European, Chinese and Eurasian
Girls and Infants-the BELILIOS PUBLIC SCHOOL.
In this school about a hundred girls obtain under English mistresses a very sound though not ambitious English education. In the Preparatory School young children of both sexes and many nationalities are taught according to the latest method. A fee of $1.50 a month, reduced under special circumstances, is charged in the Preparatory and Upper Schools alike. Special attention is paid to English Composition, English Literature, and the Geography and the History of the British Empire.