48
there were 15,570 male children under 15 in the New Territories (including New Kowloon), but suggest that about 235 of boys aged 5-15 were believed to be at school at any one time.*
In 1912, the district officer reported that there were, on average, 2,449 children regularly attending school in Northern District, in 166 schools, and 570 in the islands, in 29 schools.* This would suggest that 28.9% of male children aged 5-15 were at school in Northern District, and 55.5% of those of the same age group among the land population of the Islands.
In 1913, in the Sung Report on Education in the New Territories, a total of 2,990 students regularly attending school were recorded, in 247 schools, in Northern District, and 233 in 13 schools, in Southern District. However, the Sung Report did not cover Lantau (where there had been eight schools, with 168 students, the previous year). The Sung Report figures differ from those of the district officer and come from a different census, but give an entirely similar picture.*?
In 1921 another school census of the New Territories found 3,989 at school in 184 schools, although the census does not break the figures down into Northern and Southern Districts. The Report on New Territories Schools noted that, although 3,989 persons were registered as students, the average attendance was about 3,096 (both the Orme and Sung Reports also gave “average attendance" rather than "registration" figures). It will be seen that this school census gives figures again very close to the previous ones,
Thus, the 1911 Census, and the 1921 and 1931 Censuses, seem to give figures very much in line with those of the school censuses of 1902, 1912, 1913, and 1921, and these figures must, therefore, be treated as essentially accurate. At any time, about a quarter of all boys between 5 and 15 were at school in the Northern District, and up to half were in Southern District. In 1921, the Director of Education assumed that the average period a boy spent at school was 5 years, but a rather shorter period than this is probable. 3.4-4 years would seem more likely.* Nonetheless, the numbers of full students found make the claims in the three censuses that well over half of all adult land population males in the New Territories were literate believable. The Director of Education was of this opinion in 1921 "very few males in Hongkong