46
extremely uncommon among women In 1911 only 235 women out of 25,899 for whom the educational attainments are given (0.9%) in Northern District, and 231 out of 7,991 (2.8%) in the land population of Southern District are recorded as literate. It is probable that the 1,934 females over 10 whose educational attainments are not given for Northern District (27,833 females are recorded there over 10), and the 532 not recorded in Southern District (8,523 females are recorded there over 10), were also illiterate. In 1921 674 females are recorded as "Able to Read and Write" (2.5% of 26,942 females over 10) in Northern District, and 377 in Southern District (3.5% of 10,665 females aged over 10).
The floating population was also far less literate than the land population. In 1921, in Southern District, 1,452 males of the floating population were “Able to Read and Write” (45% of 3,180 males over 10), and just 67 females (2.7% of 2,394 females over 10). At Cheung Chau, however, there were a number of boat people who travelled on the large coastal trading junks, and these were more likely to be literate than the dwellers on small sampans: in 1911, for the floating population of Hong Kong as a whole, the census found only 4,416 floating population males out of 24,747 males over 10 literate (17.8%), and only 127 females out of 15,129 (0.8%), and this is more likely to be closer to the true position for dwellers on the smaller and poorer vessels.
The 1931 Census gives literacy rates for persons aged “21 and over" (i.e., born in or before 1910), 66.0% of land population males in the New Territories in this age group, and 2.81% of land population females, are recorded there as literate. It will be seen that these figures are very close to those recorded for the same age group in 1921 (i.e., those aged "over 10" in 1921).
A further indicator of education appears in the tables of "Occupations" in the 1911 Census. This shows that 1,729 males aged over 10 in Northern District were students, and 771 males over 10 in Southern District (including New Kowloon). It is unlikely that more than a tiny minority of villagers continued in full-time education after 15. 4,008 males were enumerated as being aged between 10 and 15 in Northern District in 1911, suggesting that 43.1% of them were students. It is, however, probable that, in the "Occupations"
Page 75
Page 76