;
+
30
Minute by the Inspector of Schools.
Before the establishment of the Central School, English was taught in a few of the Schools by visiting Masters, who attended for that purpose a few hours a week. This, the Board of Education found to be highly unsatisfactory. Accordingly, when the Central School was established, the teaching of English was abolished in all the other Schools.
The only exception now is the Aberdeen * School, which is, and has been, in such a backward state that I almost despair of the success of the experiment, and often think we should revert, in this School, to the teaching of Chinese pure and simple.
With this one exception, therefore, what are conveniently called the Village Schools are simply Schools where the children receive a Chinese education in their own language.
The School Book Committee's Series and Geography have been added to this course of instruction: but these subjects excepted, they are such Schools us might be found anywhere in any part of the Chinese Empire.
Except that there is no religious instruction, the Schools correspond exactly with the Grant-in- Aid Schools in Class I, namely, the Baxter, the London Mission, and the St. Stephen Schools. Neither Masters nor Scholars know anything of English.
FREDERICK STEWART.
29th January, 1878.
HONGKONG, 10th February, 1878.
MY DEAR MR. STEWART,--Looking to the views entertained by the Governor, and many others as to the expediency of giving greater facility to the boys at the Central School, for the study of the English language, it seems to me very desirable that we should have your views as early as possible as to the arrangements which should be made. Could you not therefore postpone your departure for a fortnight? If prior to sending in a report you would like to discuss the matter with the Governor. myself, and a few others, I am sure His Excellency will afford you every facility.
FREDERICK STEwart, Esq.
Yours, &c.,
J. GARDINER AUSTIN,
Inspector of Schools to The Honorable J. Gardiner Austin, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary.
[No. 23.]
HONGKONG, 11th February, 1878.
SIR-In answer to your note enquiring if I could not postpone my departure for a fortnight, in order to give the Government my views on the expediency of affording greater facility to the boys at the Central School for the study of the English language, I have the honour to inform you that it would be exceedingly inconvenient for me to postpone it, for several reasons: this one among others, that I had to telegraph to Shanghai to secure a passage for the 21st instant, and that I have no chance of being able to get one by the following steamer. I should, of course, at once sacrifice my own private interests for the sake of the public service, did I think it necessary; but I expect to be able to send you to-morrow, or the day after, a communication which, I believe, will set at rest this question of English at the Central School."
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
FREDERICK STEWART, Inspector of Schools.
Minute by His Excellency the Governor.
Let this await the further communication Mr. STEWART tells us he is preparing. I should be very sorry to stop him, for no Officer has earned his leave of absence better, but I fear he is somewhat over-sanguine in thinking that the communication he contemplates will set this question at rest; and
* No. of Day Sebolars in 1877,
No. of Evening Scholars in 1877,
Total,..
All these learn English; none of them speak it. The Master, Wong Káp, speaks English fairly,
30
21
61
it is to be regretted that he does not, think it necessary for the public service to act on the suggestion conveyed in Mr. AUSTIN's letter, and thus be able to discuss with the Colonial Secretary, myself and others (such as the Members of Legislative Council who represent commercial interests) the problem of again teaching English in all the Government Schools, and of making the nominal programme of four hours a day of English for every boy at the Central School a reality, so that all the pupils in that school should be able to speak English-perfectly or imperfectly--instead of only 60 out of 610.
J. POPE HENNESSY.
11th February, 1878.
Inspector of Schools to The Honourable J. Gardiner Austin, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary.
HONGKONG, 12th February, 1878.
Sm.--I have the honour to bring to your notice that there is a serious misapprehension abroad as to the working of the Central School.
2. This misapprehension has arisen from a question put to me by His Excellency the Governor, on the 25th ultimo, at the Distribution of the Prizes at the Central School.
3. I was then asked, "How many of the boys now in the school speak English?" I answered, From fifty to sixty; and that imperfectly."
4. His Excellency, in his speech as published in the Government Gazette of the 26th of January, said, "In this English Colony we must not be satisfied with 60 ont of 600 being able to speak English in our principal Government School, and that imperfectly."
5. On the following day, these words appeared in the "Catholic Register," "He" (His Excellency) "renurked on the sinall proportion, only 50 or 60 out of that number ( 610 ), who knew anything of English and of their very imperfect knowledge of the language."
6. At an interview to which the Governor invited me in the forenoon of the 9th instant, on reference being again made to the speaking of English in the school, I called His Excellency's special attention to the distinction between speaking a language and learning, that is studying it; as the impression was then gaining upon me that there was a misapprehension on the subject.
7. In the afternoon of the same day, on the occasion of the Distribution of Prizes by His Excellency the Governor at St. Joseph's College, Mr. FRANCIS is reported in the "Chins Mail" of that date to have said, "He was astonished to find at the recent examination of the Central School that only forty or fifty of the Chinese youths receiving instruction there were being taught English, or able to speak the language to any extent. He was under the impression previously that every Chinese boy who went there was taught English, and he was much surprised to find that that was not the case.'
8. In the report of the same proceedings contained in the "Daily Press" of the 11th instant, Mr. FRANCIS is similarly reported to have said, "I was astonished to find at the recent examination of the Central School only forty or fifty of the boys were able to speak English. I had always been under the impression that the one thing that school existed for was to teach English, that every boy was taught English, and I was very much astonished to find that was not the case.
9. On the same occasion, His Excellency is reported in the "China Mail" to have stated, “Yon have heard it said that only about forty or fifty, I think the actual number given to me by Mr. STEWART was fifty or sixty, of the Chinese boys being educated in the Central School last year spoke English and that imperfectly."
10. Further on, His Excellency is reported to have said, "It was only this very morning in an interview I had with Mr. STEWART, who is at the head of our Government educational system, I told him, what I was bound to repeat to him, namely, the views of leading merchants, un-official members of my Council, and others in this Colony, which are that they desire the Government Schools in Hongkong to teach more English, and that no boy should, in time to come, leave the Government Schools, without being able to speak English.
11. The report of His Excellency's words in the " Daily Press is in precisely the same terms, and need not therefore be repeated.
12. Now I very respectfully beg to point out that in all this there is a fallacy lurking, and I have italicised the words on which I think that fallacy turus.
13. The belief now abroad in the Colony is that no attempt is made at the Central School to teach more than fifty or sixty of the boys English; and that the study of that language is subordinated to the stly of Chinese, which both the English and the Chinese masters devote their time and their energies to teach. Indeed, it is difficult to see how people could believe otherwise, considering that Mr. FRANCIS, as appears above, stated at St. Joseph's College on the 9th instant, that he was astonished to find that only forty
or fifty of the boys at the Central School were being taught English, and that His Excellency practically endorsed the statement by allowing it to pass unchallenged although touching upon it.