350
SIB,
To His Excellency
SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
Governor of Hongkong,
ST. PAUL'S COLLEGE,
Hongkong, February 3rd, 1881.
&c., &c., &c.
11 APR 31
I have the honour to enclose a copy of the First Annual Report of the Public School1 held in St. Paul's College.
2. From the Financial Statement Your Excellency will perceive that the total cost of the School for the year, including the special item of Passage and Outfit of Master, has exceeded $2,000, and that this has been entirely defrayed by Public Subscriptions and Fees, the public subscriptions amounting to the large sum of $1,995.
3. As stated in the Report, it was hoped from the beginning that a Government Grant would prove one of the sources of income on which the School was to depend for its support. We accordingly placed the School under Government inspection as soon as it was opened; but, though all the boys who had fulfilled the conditions of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme were passed by the Examiner at the close of the year, the amount received by way of Grant is only $78.61, about a twenty-fourth part of the cost less the amount obtained by fees.
4. This great disproportion between what has been raised by the Community and the Government Grant is likely so seriously to affect the School in discouraging voluntary subscriptions, that I am constrained to address Your Excellency on the subject, in the hope that some steps may be taken towards affording us that assistance from Government of which we think the case worthy.
5. The Grant-in-Aid Scheme, under which our School obtains the above-mentioned small amount, was drawn up for circumstances entirely different from those in which the Public School is placed. It takes for granted that there will be large numbers to draw from, that the pupils ought to be able to make up 200 attendances of four hours each in the year, and that the remuneration of Teachers will be on the small scale generally adopted here in paying Chinese Masters. In other words, it was drawn up chiefly, if not entirely, for Chinese Schools, taught exclusively in the Chinese language by Chinese Masters, and assembling in cheap Native buildings. I have had experience of the working of this Scheme in relation to such schools, and I have reason to be most grateful to the Government for the help afforded me in carrying them on. Last year I had two Chinese schools in operation under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. The average attendance was about 10. The education was solely in Chinese, and of the ordinary elementary kind. The entire cost of these two schools, for educating between 80 and 160 Chinese pupils for the year, including salaries of two Teachers, Rent, Repairs, Books, Desks, Forms, &c., was $614. All the boys who had completed their 200 attendances passed the Inspector's examination, and I have just had the satisfaction of receiving from the Government, after deducting the two Teachers' shares of the grant, the large sum of $460.78, that is, almost exactly three-fourths of what I spent on these schools during the year. I believe this, or some proportion near this, was what the Government intended for schools in which it should be proved, after due examination, that good work was being done. I need not point out how materially such a proportion assists the school, while it leaves much to be done in the way of careful superintendence, and something also to be raised by private benevolence. The share given to the diligent Chinese teacher encourages him in his work, that given to Managers encourages them not only further to develop the schools thus liberally assisted, but to increase the number of such schools from year to year. Thus, by the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, the Government has rendered material help towards the cause of education in the Colony in the direction chiefly aimed at when the Scheme was drawn up, and I for one should be sorry to see it altered, so far as it relates to Chinese Schools.
6. But the circumstances are entirely different when the object is to impart a European education in the English language. For such a case, the whole matériel and personnel of the school are of an entirely different kind and on a more expensive scale. One or more Masters must be procured from England; passages and outfits in addition to large salaries have to be provided; buildings, books, desks, writing material, all are of a costlier nature than in Chinese Schools; the total expenses are so great that, whether the pupils are Chinese or English, the grant given according to the present Scheme is a comparatively nominal sum, and Government Inspection and examination give little but moral support. Let me explain more fully how this happens.
7. In the case of a school consisting of Chinese boys taught by an English Master, the numbers that could be received would be between 30 and 40. More might of course be had, but one man could not do justice to more. If the school were increased, the teaching staff must be increased also, which means, if the addition were really effective, a large increase of expenditure. I have had such a school in St. Paul's College. The Annual cost of it was between two and three thousand Dollars, exclusive of Master's outfit and passage from England, which amounted to £150. The number of boys
1. Published separately.
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