Meanwhile (in 1879) the grant-in-aid scheme had been modified to permit of religious education in the schools coming within the benefice, and this had a wide influence helping education forward considerably. By 1882, there were no fewer than 80 schools under Government supervision, with 5,182 scholars.
Most of the history of education since then is bound up with the growth of the big schools existing in the Colony to-day, nearly all of which has already been published in this series of articles on Old Hongkong. I might close this survey with a list of the principal educational institutions existing here in 1880, some of which are still flourishing, though at new sites and under changed names, while several others have passed out of existence or been absorbed by other schools. The list follows:-
St. Paul's College; Hongkong Public School (held at St. Paul's College) headmaster W.M. Sutton, formed in 1855, originally as St. Andrew's School (see 1-7-33); the immediate predecessor of Queen's College, called for a short period the Victoria Boys' School, headmaster J.M. Hanlon; Diocesan Home and Orphanage (Bonham Road), Geo'. Piercy, headmaster; St. Stephen's Church Schools (C.M.S. at Taipingshan and Baiyingpun), (see 30-11-33); Baxter Memorial School (C.M.S.); the Italian Convent (Caine Road); and St. Joseph's English College, then at 9 Caine Road.
Quite an interesting history is attached to the Central British School at Kowloon, for the time of its opening marks an important change in the Hongkong Government's education policy.
Prior to 1900 the Government held that in schools maintained or assisted by the taxpayers, no distinction of race or creed could legitimately be drawn. Thus it was when Mr. (now Sir Robert) Ho Tung came forward with a generous offer of a large sum of money for the erection of a public school at Kowloon, open to all races, the Government gratefully accepted the offer.
However, between 1900 when the offer was made and 1902, the views of the Government changed, and it was felt that an education given in schools attended indiscriminately by the children of various races, speaking different languages, was not efficient. The Government's advisers felt that the best interests of the inhabitants of the Colony would be served by the establishment of separate schools in which the children of each race could obtain the education specially suited to their needs.
In view of this change of policy, the then Colonial Secretary Mr. J.H. Stewart Lockhart wrote to Mr. Ho Tung and asked him to re-consider the condition of his gift, stipulating that the school be thrown open to all races.
In a reply dated February 17, 1902, Mr. Ho Tung wrote,
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