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GRANT SCHOOLS.
(1).—Roman Catholic Mission-St. Joseph's College.
Discipline and Organization.-There are so many classes of boys, including Portuguese, Chinese, Indians, Filipinos and Spanish, that it must always be a matter of difficulty to draw up a satisfactory syllabus. As English is not the native tongue of so many of the boys, promotion through the School should be made to depend more upon a sound knowledge of colloquial and written English. The boys in class VI failed badly in both Composition and Grammar, and it may be supposed that their comparative failure in Arithmetic was due to their not under- standing the wording of the sums.
Another weak point in the organization of the School is that the Chinese boys receive no instruction in their own language. This is a serious matter in the lower Standards, where more than 20 per cent. of the boys are Chinese. Discipline is excellent throughout the School.
Sanitation.-Satisfactory. Sometimes I have noticed that the windows and doors of the class rooms are kept tight shut and that the rooms have become "stuffy" in consequence.
Floor space.-Sufficient for 652 scholars.
Apparatus.-Satisfactory.
English-Composition and Grammar.-At the midsummer test examination Standard IV shewed up only about 50 words on an average. At least twice as much should have been done. It was consequently hard to test the Compositions, but they seemed very good, though handwriting is poor. In Standard V two boys did very good papers, one paper was fair, and four were worthless. Standard VI two papers were poor, and six worthless.
In Standard VII two papers were excellent, and three were good, and one worthless.
In
Reading. Was generally good. In Standard II the meaning is not suffici- ently explained. In Standard III the boys must be made to speak louder.
Chinese. Although this subject is not taught, I held a test examination of the Chinese boys. Thirty-nine boys were presented, of whom the majority were unable to read even colloquial Chinese intelligently. They were also required to write an essay or a letter on a simple subject. Very few made any attempt to do this, though two boys acquitted themselves with credit.
Geography-Taught in the old-fashioned way by definitions in Standard II, but very intelligently in Standard III, and is well taught in the Upper School.
Mathematics-Arithmetic.-Seemed taught with great success in the lower classes especially in Standard IV where all the boys examined obtained full marks- a remarkable achievement. In Standard VII very good work was done also, which makes the poor work done in V and VI the harder to understand. In this and most other Schools the boys waste time by fair copying the questions before proceeding to answer them.
Algebra. An intelligent beginning was made in Standard IV. Standard V was weak; many papers examined shewed carelessness as to signs. This weak- ness also appeared in Standard VI, which otherwise was good. The work done by Standard VII is excellent.
(2).-Roman Catholic Mission-Italian Convent.
Discipline and Organization.-There has been a most praiseworthby attempt made by the staff of this School to re-model the teaching in accordance with modern ideas. This attempt has been most successful in the lower Standards. It will be seen below that the higher Standards are not equally satisfactory, but they can only be expected to improve gradually until they are filled by scholars who have had a better grounding. I do not think that the best results can be obtained in the higher Standards unless more English teachers are employed.
Sanitation.-Satisfactory.