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16. A short story was twice told to 15 boys, so selected as to be representa- tive of Class IV. This test has only been applied hitherto to Class III; but it seemed to the examiners that, in view of the great improvement in Colloquial, the top boys of the lower School might fairly be submitted thereto. This belief was justified by the result. In comparing the papers with those done by Class III last year, it was found that 13 boys out of 15 had grasped the sense of the story, as compared with 8 out of 15. But considered as compositions the papers do not deserve a higher mark than fair. There was little to choose between the three Divisions of the Class. The fact is of interest as shewing that the undue forcing forward of incompetent boys, adversely commented on below, does not occur in the Lower School. The following are types of very common grammatical mistakes, which should be carefully studied by masters and boys with a view to their eradication :-
He got up and walk along the road.
He said he can not.
He put it down and goes away.
(This historic present if used at all should be used consistently, but it is better avoided altogether. When scattered at random among verbs in the past tense, it excites suspicion that the author is uncertain whether "went" or "goed" is correct.)
He was hurt his leg.
A few word.
Someone were.
17. Class III was set a short essay, to write an account of their doings on the last Sunday. Hitherto their compositions have been confined to the reproduction of a story. Next year the essay might well be set to Class IV, and the story to Class V.
18. Divisions A and B of Class III did very fairly. Division C was poor, and would probably have been all the better for another term in the Lower School. But we wish to make it clear that a considerable improvement has been made since last year. Our standard has been raised, and raised for the next few years it should continue to be, since it is still a low one.
19. Class IIA was fair. Class IIB very bad. Class IA was also fair, and IB very bad. In these two classes also the standard has been raised. We have evidence that great pains have been taken to correct those particular mistakes to which attention was drawn last year.
20. We attribute the weakness of this.subject in the two top Classes to two main causes, one of which appears immediately remediable. Out of 65 papers corrected, 31 are classified as very bad, and the authors should never have received promotion. This weak spot was pointed out last year. But apart from this, their insufficient grounding in colloquial makes it inevitable that the senior boys should spoil, as they so often do, a passage giving evidence of a large vocabulary and even of some elegance, by gross grammatical blunders. Fortunately, there is every rea- son to hope that this second cause of failure will be remedied in a year or two by the good work at present being done in the Lower and Preparatory Schools.
GEOGRAPHY.
21. This subject is now introduced in the way recommended by the examiners last year. The topography of the City of Victoria is studied in the Preparatory School, thus giving the necessary insight into the meaning of scale, and conventional signs. Next year maps of the Island and New Territory will doubtless be studied. This method is incidentally very effective in teaching English, and explains the mean- ing of geographical definitions in the clearest way. We cannot recommend the little catechism used in Class VI. It is true that most of the boys in that Class had some idea of the dimensions of Hongkong, although they were very vague as to the height of the Peak. But why should they begin their studies by learning-as they all had learned that the Isle of Wight is 23 miles, long by 13 miles broad? However the answers of the catechism were well known by some of the boys, though many appeared to take little interest in the subject.