321
District Schools for 4 years if satisfactory progress is shewn in their studies by the scholars. 4 free scholarships to be held at Queen's College for 3 years each are offered annually to candidates selected from the 3 District Schools, Saiyingpun, Yaumati, and Wantsai.
Five free scholarships tenable for 4 years each but only offered as vacancies occur are given to lower class pupils at the Belilios Public School, English Side, to encourage young girls to remain longer at school.
52. The system of scholarships appears to be working well in the Boys Schools where the competition for them is getting very keen, especially so in the case of Queen's College. Girls, however, appreciate the efforts of the Government in this respect very much less than the boys and show no great desire to obtain the scholarships. Even the offer of scholar- ships for years does not appear to check to any appreciable extent the tendency on the part of parents to withdraw their daughters from school as soon as they have obtained a fair vernacular education to which allusion has already been made in paragraph 40.
Visual Instruction.
53. Series of lectures in this subject have been given during the year at all large English Schools in the Colony. At several of these no lectures had previously been delivered owing to the late arrival of the lanterns. The slides and the subject matter were therefore in these cases quite new to the pupils. At other schools however the course has been taken once. It thus appears a matter of necessity to supplement existing slides with -one or two new series for next year's course.
54. The arrangements for the lectures, all of which have been well attended, were slightly modified as a course was given at Queen's College this year for the first time. The heads of the District Schools are now anxious to take courses at their respective schools also, it will therefore be necessary in the coming year either to shorten the time during which the lanterns and slides are at the disposal of individual schools or to arrange for al course to be held, as was originally suggested, either at Queen's College or the City Hall at which pupils from several schools may attend together.
Hongkong Technical Institute.
(Formerly Evening Continuation Classes),
55. These classes which started in October 1906 were carried on until the end of May when the first year of instruction came to a close. The attendance which averaged 256 in October 1906 dwindled down to 197 in January chiefly owing to the non-attend- ance of those who had originally only joined the classes out of curiosity and ceased to attend as soon as they were called upon to settle down to solid work. In March 1907 the average attendance showed a further slight drop to 178 and in May the last month of the session the average attendance was 162 a very small decrease as compared with the heavy drop in January. An examination was held at the end of the May Session and certificates were granted to those who were successful in the various subjects of study.
56. At the close of the New Year session in May a Committee was appointed by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government to enquire into the working of the classes and submit proposals for the future. The Committee collected evidence and reported to the Government in August. Its proposals, practically all of which were eventually adopted, were to put the classes under the management of a Director, personally respons- ible to the Inspector of Schools, and to have an Advisory Committee which was to be consulted if any changes in the subjects and courses of study were contemplated. Subjects which had failed to attract students were given up and on the evidence collected it was deemed advisable to introduce several new ones such as steam and light. The subjects of study were definitely laid down as also the length of the course in each subject. Matters such as the fees chargeable and the remuneration to be paid to lecturers were also dealt with. Under the name of the Hongkong Technical Institute the classes were re-opened. in October for one year to begin with. A marked improvement was noticeable in the attendance and a greater tendency was shown to take lectures in subjects which went together and formed part of a systematic course, rather than as was the case when the classes started, to pick out the subjects at random. The attendance was well maintained and only began to drop off as it invariably does elsewhere towards the end of the Chinese Year. The average attendance is likely to remain at roughly 200, which figure shews clearly the necessity for the establishment of these classes. A detailed report of the year's work will be found in Appendix C.