50
in
I observed several evil tendencies arising from some of its
all The Hongkong Public School, conducted at St. Paul's College, with an enrolment of directly connected with any foreign Missionary. None of the Kaifong schools has as yet been placed boys, all of whom were the sons of English speaking parents, presented only 14 boys for examination under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. There is no need to detail the results of the examination of each of the others having failed to attain to the requisite number of attendances or left. None was old enonese 23 Grant-iu-Aid schools, as the results are summarily tabulated in the comparative Tables appended to be presented in a higher standard than the fourth. One boy failed in two subjects, and all to this report. But a few general observations, which forced themselves into notice lately in con- others passed in every subject. Two boys were also examined in Algebra, as a special subject, and section with these schools, may be interesting to the taxpayer and possibly contain useful hints to the passed. Although, therefore, the school had but a small number of boys to present for examination Dianagers of these schools. I observed, in the first instance, a general steady improvement going on, but one more than at the previous examination,--the result of the examination was highly creditable from year to year, in the quality of teaching given in these schools, as well as in their organisation to the Master, and indeed the one boy who failed was too young and nervous to be expected to past and discipline. As I knew all those of these schools which existed before they were brought under The class of residents, for whose children this Public School was specially designed, is too small to give the Grant-in-Aid Code, I am certain that this general improvement in the effectiveness of these schools In my opinion it would be more advantageous to the school, to revert to the former plan of admitting all other schemes, has also its drawbacks. any solid prospect of securing a larger attendance in future. The fees charged are also very high is principally due to the provisions of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. On the other hand, this scheme, like a number of respectable Chinese youths to be taught together with the English speaking boys, as the provisions. As, for instance, one-fourth of the annual grant earned by a school, goes, according to the increased number of scholars would enable the Committee to reduce the fees and to increase the staff provisions of the Code, to the paid teacher as a personal bonus, there is among most of the native whilst the mixing of the two races would produce a healthy exulation without at all endangering a teachers a strong tendcucy, not only to neglect the religious teaching which is not examined into nor discipline, to which Chinese boys are far more amenable than European youths.
specially paid for by the Government, in favour of the particular subjects required by the Code, but Chinese language, we had in 1881 three schools, two of which are conducted by the Basel Mission Another objectionable expedient lately resorted to by some of the native teachers of these schools in
a is given in the the Hakka dialect, and one by the Berlin Ladies' Society in the Punti dialect. One of the Basel the Basel Mission, with an enrolment of 47 boys, presented only 19 boys, of whom 18 were present, this ion schools is a day school for boys, the other a boarding school for girls. The boys' school for examination, the remainder having either ceased to attend or failed to attain the requisite pump of 200 daily attendances during the year. Of the 18 boys examined, 3 failed in I subject each, and 1 Considering that 4 of the boys examined were clearly too young to be expected to pass in arithmetic,
subjects, and the result was that, out of 18 boys examined in the first three standards, 14 passed in Class I, and which consists in training boys chiefly for the lower standards of the scheme in which this result shewed that good teaching had been given, but the great irregularity of the attendances in this school, compared with the attendances in day schools for Hakka children in the immediate neigh- bourhood, appears to me to indicate that the kind of education given in this school is not much thought of by the parents of the boys, who evidently care more far a good Chinese than for a good European education. That it is not the religious teaching which the parents object to, appears clearly from the fact that crowds of the same class of children are thronging into the other Grant-in-Aid school in the immediate neighbourhood, where as much religion is taught, but a Chinese education, instead of i European one, is given. The time which this boys' school of the Basel Mission devoted to the teaching of reading and writing colloquial Chinese in the Roman character, and to arithmetic, makes a serious inroad upon the time required for learning to read and write in the Chinese character and, in my opinion, mars, if it does not binder, real proficiency in the latter. The disadvantages, however, which this system of education appears to imply, do not seem to have equal force in the case of girls for whom, if the two instances of the girls schools conducted by the Basel Mission and Berlin Mission area sufficient guide, this system would seem better suited. better results than the boys. The Basel Mission Girls' School, admirably organised and conducted as At any rate, the girls clearly gain under it a boarding school, shews this system to its best advantage, as all the girls are tolerably grounded in the written Chinese character, whilst the facility with which the girls in the highest classes write prose composition in the Hakka vernacular, using the Roman character, is a clear proof that there is con- siderable power in this system in the direction of educating the mind, apart from the greater variety of mere instruction conveyed by it. exception of 11 girls in standard IV, of whom 3 failed in 1 subject each, 1 failed in 2 subjects, and 1 Of 43 girls examined, all passed in every subject, with the in 3 subjects. The latter two failures were clearly caused by individual incapacity. The result of the examination proved the teaching, which is here given by properly trained teachers, to have been excellent in all respects. Nevertheless it was evident to me that the system followed in this school does not admit of the same proficiency being obtained in the written Chinese character as is found in other girls' schools which give a purely Chinese education.
Class I, also adopted with a view to obtain a high personal bonus, is the practice of admitting at the beginning of the year a much larger number of children than there is teaching power to provide for, and to select out of the mass, and to drill in preference, the more intelligent portion of the scholars, but quietly to get rid, by neglect or otherwise, of the unpromising scholars. A further objectionable devise of the same sort is the practice, which appears more generally to be setting in in all the boys' schools passes can be obtained at the examination with comparative ease, but to bring forward as few scholars as possible for the higher standards in which the risk of failure is much greater. Thus, the liberality of the Code appears to have engendered a mercenary spirit among many of the native masters of schools in Class and it seems that this very scheme, which was introduced to raise the standard of education in the Colony, is, as far as these schools in Class I are concerned, liable to an abuse tending to lower the standard of education materially. Although the number of these schools and the number of their scholars has very largely increased since 1876, yet the subjoined figures shew that the number of scholars annually brought forward into the two highest standards of the Code has considerably decreased since 1876.
26. The only other school in the Colony, worked under this same system, is the girls' school of the Berlin Foundling House Bethesda, which is also a boarding school like the Basel Mission girls school, and this school also produced, through its excellent teaching and organisation, very favourable results. None of these girls, however, were presented in the two highest standards. Out of 37 girls examined, 4 failed in 1 subject each, and the result was that only one failed to pass.
of
27. All the remaining Grant-in-Aid schools are worked under Class I of the Code, giving a purely Chinese education in the Chinese language only. But as all these schools, 23 in number, teach principally the Chinese Classics and supplement the ethical teaching of the Confucian Classics by religious Christian teaching, the work done in these schools has, in my opinion, a high educational value. Until the beginning of last year the Protestant Missions of the Colony held the monopoly this system of teaching. Last year, for the first time, the Roman Catholic Mission placed one school, worked under this system, under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, so that now 22 of these schools are Pre- testant Mission schools and 1 is a Roman Catholic school. Five of the Protestant Mission schools are under the superintendence of a native catechist and were opened by him on behalf of a few Chinese merchants who supply the funds. These schools are, however, distinctly Protestant, though not
Number of Scholars examined in Standards V and VI of Class 1. 1876, number examined in Standards V and VI,
11
1877, 1878,
>>
33
33
1879,
哆喃
15
1880, 1881,
$5
*
71
་
45
31
25
17
20
28
I find that the slight increase in the number of scholars brought forward into the higher stan- dards in 1881, as compared with the three preceding years, is due to the laudable efforts made in this direction by the girls' schools and their Managers. It is principally in the boys' schools in Class I, that the standard of education has manifestly been lowered instead of being raised. It is true that a con- siderable number of the boys in these schools leave, after four years study of Chinese, to be enrolled in the Central School to study English, but this fact does not sufficiently account for the excessively small number of boys now being brought forward year by year into the higher standards in spite of the enormous increase of the attendance in these schools. Finally I observed that in the case of some of these Grant-in-Aid schools in Class I, the expenses of which are very small, the amount of grant earned under the provisions of the Code in 1881 exceeded the amount actually spent by them in the same year. I recommended therefore to the Government to introduce into the Grant-in-aid Scheme a rule, limiting the amount of grant, payable to any one school, by a fixed ratio of proportion between grant and expenditure incurred.
28. A Normal School has been started by the Goverument in September, 1881, beginning with 10 students, with a view to supply trained native Masters for the schools of the Colony. It is too soon to speak of results. The ten students were examined by me at the end of the year, and the result was very satisfactory, but as it tested only three months' work, it is needless to state details here. I append, however, a brief report by the Principal (Appendix).
29. I enclose also the usual Tables, I-XVI, containing the Educational Statistics for 1881.
I have the honour to be,
The Hon. F. STEWART, LL.D..
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
E. J. EITEL, Inspector of Schools,