2
No. 1906
HONGKONG.
REPORT ON THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE IN THE SCHOOLS OF HONGKONG.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
Towards the end of the year 1903, a Circular was received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, forwarding a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of Lagos on the subject of teaching Hygiene in schools. It was suggested in the Circular that "skilfully arranged lessons on the natural history of the causes of the most important tropical diseases might be inade very attractive to children, and that such teaching would be of practical utility in the future.”
The Secretary of State desired to be informed whether any teaching of this nature was at that time being given in the schools of Hongkong, or whether it could profitably be given
2. Hygiene had not at that time been taught in the schools of the Colony, except here and there in a sporadic and disconnected way, under the names of Domestic Science and Physiology. To advise how the subject might be conveniently introduced, Mr. MAY, the Officer Administering the Government, appointed a Committee, consisting of the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Headmaster of Queen's College and the Inspector of Schools, to draw up a scheme for the Colony. Their Report, sent in in February, 1904, recommended that-
(a) the subject should be made compulsory in the Anglo-Chinese
Schools of the Colony;
(b.) it should be taught orally in the lower Standards, and by means of
simple text books in the higher;
(c.) the Medical Officer of Health should be requested to draw up a
Syllabus.
The Syllabus suggested in (c.) as first drawn up required considerable modi- fication, and finally His Excellency the Governor outlined a completer Course of Instruction, which was embodied in the Course of Hygiene now used in the Schools, compiled at the close of 1904 by Dr. W. W. PEARSE, Medical Officer of Health.
3. His Excellency decided that the subject, with this Course as a basis, should be made compulsory in all Government and Grant Schools and the Grant Code was amended conformably early in March, 1905. At the suggestion of Dr. WRIGHT and myself, it was further decided that the Advanced Course should be taught to Standards VII and VI, and the Elementary Course to Standards V, IV and III that the time given to the subject should be 2 weekly periods of hour each and that one of these should be occupied with reading the Course, and the other with the subject treated as an object lesson.
4. It having been decided by His Excellency that progress should be tested by an examination, one was accordingly held at the beginning of December last, as described below. The results were the fruit of less than 8 months' work, broken by the Summer holidays. Delay was also caused by the necessity of procuring the books of reference for the Advanced Course from Home. One or two Grant Schools clected to defer beginning the subject till after the close of their school-year in June. But on the whole, work was started without needless delay; nor did the teachers find much difficulty in grasping the proper way of imparting instruction. A few suggestions are made at the end of this Report. The number of pupils under instruction is returned as 1,524, of whom 307 or 20 per cent, took the Advanced Course. Details are given in Appendix A.
II.
5. Ilis Excellency the Governor having offered prizes of $100, $50 and $25 for the 3 best papers done by pupils studying the Advanced Course, and a Shield with 2 prizes of $15 and $10 for the school which should send in the best Team of 10 competitors from the Standards taking the Elementary Course, these rewards