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Tang-lung-chau and Aberdeen.-Sanction has been obtained during the year under review for replacing the Vernacular Schools at these places by Lower Grade Anglo-Chinese Schools. In recommending this change I wrote:-
It is now quite certain that Chinese masters, when under English super- "vision, can teach the rudiments of English in accordance with modern methods; "and I now propose to open two Lower Grade Anglo-Chinese Schools, giving in- "struction up to Standard III-one at Tang-lung-chau and one at Aberdeen. "The people of these neigbourhoods are poor, and can hardly afford to keep their "children at school more than three years. In that time it is proposed to teach "them how to speak English, to write a simple letter in English and Chinese,
simple arithmetic, a good deal of general information, good manners,
There are "Government buildings available, the one at Aberdeen being lent at present to the "Church Missionary Society. I propose to put one master on a salary of $600 46 at each school.
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"Furniture and incidental expenses would amount to $100 at each school.'
As a fact, it is necessary to hire a room for the Tang-lung-chau school to make- room for the Victoria School. Still the cost of the two schools combined is not likely to exceed about $1,600, against which fees should be obtained amounting to perhaps $300 or $400, the cost per scholar being about $20.
GRANT SCHOOLS.
English Schools, Non-Chinese. There is nothing in particular to report under this heading. The schools have for the most part readily adopted the changes necessary to bring them under the new Code. The two Diocesan Schools, St. Joseph's, the Italian and French Convents and St. Mary's are the most important of this class. A large proportion of the boys at the Diocesan School and St. Joseph's are Chinese. They are being taught the Written Language; and that is the most important change that has taken place in the curriculum during the year.
St. Mary's at Kowloon was put on the Annual Grant List in the course of the year, and has not yet been reported on.
Taken
Some of these schools are still rather old-fashioned in their methods. as a whole I believe them to be up to the standard of similar schools at Home. They differ from the other classes of schools next described, in that they do not require much special modification to suit them to our peculiar local needs.
English Schools, Chinese.--The most important are the Ellis Kadoorie aud the Roman Catholic Cathedral Schools.
The instruction in schools of this class has been completely revolutionised under the new Code. The changes that have taken place have been so fully described in various reports, that it is not necessary to treat them at length here. It is sufficient to recall that eighteen months ago these schools earned Grants on an examination of the scholars, which ignored their ability to speak English and write Chinese. The improvement already effected is great but there is plenty of room for more. All the same it is satisfactory to note that the changes which seemed advantageous in theory, have proved so in practice, to the satisfaction of the masters and scholars alike.
:
Vernacular Schools. Of these Schools the Committee on Education wrote as follows, at the beginning of the year 1902-(pages 4 and 6 of their Report):-
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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. Unfortunately they nearly all leave "school before getting as far as this, that is to say, unable to read. The Vernacu- "lar Grant Schools are left, with few exceptions, so far as secular instruction is "concerned, to the charge of the Chinese teachers, who do not appear as a class to "be sufficiently impressed with the necessity of maintaining their schools in dis- "cipline, cleanliness and order; while the children, provided as they are with a