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5. I take this opportunity of informing you that the project of instituting a Chinese High School is at present in abeyance. I understand that the want is being met by a local private Institution.
I have, etc.,
HENRY A. BLAKE.
Enclosure No. 1.
MEMO. ON EDUCATION AT QUEEN'S COLLEGE.
1. The product we desire to see as the result of an education at Queen's College is a young man equipped with a good knowledge of English and "Western learning," and with so much of the Chinese written language as will enable him to write clearly and intelligently and to read plain prose, and to render Chinese into English and vice versa with some degree of ease and accuracy.
2. After consultation with the Head and Assistant Masters (English and Chinese) we approve a scheme drawn up by Mr. RALPHS attached* though we do not commit ourselves to an approval of all its details. Moreover our approval depends on the acceptance of certain modifications and provisos, given in sections 4 and 5 below.
3. The scheme contemplates putting the 5 lowest Divisions under 5 of the less experienced Chinese Masters with a Normal Master in control of them. Five Pupil Teachers, now in sole charge of Divisions of 50-70 scholars each-a disastrous arrangement-will be relieved entirely of this duty, and will be attached to the five Divisions. They will give occasional lessons under supervision, and spend the rest of their time either in assisting the Divisional Masters or in private study.
As five Pupil Teachers will thus have to be withdrawn from the teaching staff, it is clear that their places must be filled. This it is proposed to do by the creation of a Chinese side to the School of five Classes corresponding to the five Classes of the Preparatory and Lower School, i.e., to Classes IV, V, VI, VII, VIII. Five Vernacular Class Masters will be appointed.
The Normal Master will be in charge of the five lowest Divisions with their Masters and Pupil Teachers.
4. As regards the English side of the education we believe that this scheme will work a great improvement in the teaching of the School and in the grounding given to new scholars. We have however two conditions to attach to this approval: (1) no Pupil Teacher should be confirmed in an appointment as Master under the supervi- sion of the Normal Master until he shall have passed a suitable examination and have received a certificate of proficiency signed by the Head and Normal Masters, and that similarly no master under the supervision of the Normal Master should be confirmed in a mastership free from the supervision of the Normal Master till he shall have passed a further examination and obtained a further certificate. (This will not apply to the 7 Senior Masters, Chinese, who are quite competent, according to the Head Master's assurance to us, and who should at once receive a certificate from him to this effect.) The second condition we attach is: (ii) the Normal Master should be trained and certificated.
5. We do not think the scheme will provide for the acquirement of Chinese pari passu with English unless the following points are insisted on:-(i) Promotion in the five Chinese Classes shall coincide with promotion in the five English Classes. It shall not be possible for a boy to be in Class IV (English) and Class V (Chinese); (i) In the examination for promotion of scholars and for prizes, Chinese should carry due weight; (ii) There should be no admittance to the School otherwise than by an Entrance Examination in Chinese.
Note. The entrance examination complies with Sir C. C. SMITH's Memo. para, 8.- No Chinese boy should be ** admitted to these Schools until he can pass the approved standard in the Chinese written language.”
But we think that the plan of an Entrance Examination combined with the creation of a Chinese side to the Preparatory and Lower Schools is more feasible than that apparently contemplated by the Secretary of State, of linking a Ver- nacular School to the Queen's College. Among other reasons, Queen's College is already full, and it is not clear where the Vernacular School could be housed; (ir) The work of the five Chinese Classes should be carefully considered by a small Committee who should draw up a syllabus. These Classes should, if possible, be put under the Normal Master, or at any rate should have strict European supervision and the teaching in them should be modernised.
* Not rinted.