99
To the Chinese studies of the Normal School Students the same observations apply as those which I made above with reference to the Chinese Classes of the Central School. All that can be expected, in view of the limited time available for Chinese studies, is that the standard of Chinese attainments acquired by the Students before entering the Normal School be maintained and deepened. So far the result of the Chinese teaching of the Normal School has been highly satisfactory. I subjoin the details of the Chinese examination.
failed 1 passed 7 Students.
Essay writing, Letter
"
Prosody (odes),
Total number examined,
passed,
>>
15
8
"}
}
4
4 39
..8
Apart from the above mentioned eight Students, secured by Bonds, two Probationers were received a few weeks before the close of the year, subject to three months' trial, but it is doubtful whether they can eventually be enrolled.
10. The smaller Government Schools and the so called Aided Schools (in the villages) have gone their usual course in 1882 and do not call for special remarks. A growing demand for English teaching manifests itself now in the outskirts of the town and in the larger villages, and English teaching has shown satisfactory results in Saiyingp'ún, Wántsai, Wonguaichung, Stanley and Yaumati. In Stanley especially good progress has been made in 1882 as compared with the state of things there in the previous years. The Anglo-Chinese teacher at Shaukiwán had to be dismissed and purely Chinese teaching has been temporarily substituted there for Anglo-Chinese teaching, owing to the present impossibility of finding a trained or competent Master for such an out-station. In some few of the Aided Village-Schools, which give a purely Chinese education of a low class—Schools in which occasionally children do not learn writing because the parents are too poor to buy pen and ink—the results of the annual examination came near the average results of the corresponding class of Grant-in-Aid Schools. But in a vast majority of cases these Aided Government Schools in the villages are far below the lowest standard of education given in the Grant-in-Aid Schools. A comparison between those Aided Government Schools and the Denominational Grant-in-Aid Schools tends to impress upon the observer the desirability of encouraging the attempt which, I understand, is about to be made by some Grant-in-aid School Managers, to introduce in the villages also the Grant-in-Aid system which hitherto was confined to the city of Victoria and Yaumati. I can well remember the low stagnant condition in which the Denominational Schools of Hongkong were engulfed before the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, with its system of payment by results, was introduced and raised them gradually to the high educational standard they now occupy. I would fain see the same reforming influences brought to bear on the Government Aided Schools of Hongkong. Although the Grant-in-Aid Scheme affords material aid only to Schools which enjoy a large attendance and is therefore inappropriate to some of the smaller villages of Hongkong, which will ever require a continuation of the present system of Aided Schools with its fixed monthly payments, the Grant-in-Aid system might beneficially and successfully be introduced in a considerable number of the villages of Hongkong.
11. With reference to the Denominational Grant-in-Aid Schools, all the details, such as I have given above with reference to the Central School and the Normal School, will be found collected in the Tables accompanying this report, viz.: in Table XIII showing the number of scholars who passed and failed in each standard, as well as the amount of grant earned in each case, in Table XIV, which exhibits the percentage of scholars who passed in each School, and in Table XV, which shows the percentage of passes obtained by each of those Schools in English reading, writing (or composition), arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, and in Chinese reading, repetition, writing, explanation, geography and composition. There are only a few of the English teaching Schools, which call for special remarks.
12. St. Joseph's College was moved during the year, first into temporary mat sheds and subsequently into a splendid new building for which a Building Grant is now applied for. These changes in the locality of the School-rooms might have been expected to impair the efficiency of the teaching of the year, but the result of the examination has been highly creditable to the excellent organization and discipline maintained at this School by the Christian Brothers. The Chinese Division indeed has not been as successful as in former years, owing to the fact that the staff in this Division is inadequate now for the annually increasing number of classes into which the scholars in this Division have to be sub-divided. In former years, when there were only two or three classes in this Division, it was quite possible for the one Master to teach the whole Division single-handed, but to teach effectively 55 boys divided between 5 different standards, as was the case in 1882, was beyond the range of possibility for one Master, even assisted as he was by a Chinese pupil teacher. I mention this, in justice to the Master in question, in view of the fact that in this Division, out of 53 boys examined, 45 only passed, or 84.9 per cent., being a decrease of 13.12 per cent. as compared with the results of the previous year. Portuguese Division of St. Joseph's College passed very well, as out of 105 boys examined in the various standards of the Code, as many as 100 boys or 95.24 per cent. passed, which is a result reflecting the highest credit on the Head-Master and staff of the College. It will also be noticed that the number of days, during which this School was taught in 1882, has been increased to 234 days, whereby a defect has been remedied to which I drew attention in my last Annual Report. Another defect of this School remains, however, still to be remedied, viz., the irregularity of attendance on the part of the Portuguese scholars. Now, since the number of school days has been brought up to a satisfactory standard, the blame for failures in making up the 200 daily attendances required by the Code rests almost entirely with the parents of the children. The College itself suffers severely under this apathy of the parents, as out of 342 boys on the roll of St. Joseph's College in 1882, only 158 could be allowed to compete at the examination for the annual grant, which is paid by the Government on the basis of a minimum of 200 daily attendances during the year.
13. The Victoria Schools suffered, in the boys' division, a considerable decrease in the number of scholars attending this School, but the Tables appended to this Report will show that the efficiency of the teaching given in both divisions, that for girls and that for boys, has but slightly decreased as compared with the very high standard obtained in former years. As many as 94.74 per cent. of the scholars passed in 1882 in the girls' division and 86.66 per cent. in the boys' division.
14. The Italian Sisters are beginning to come to the front in their efforts for the improvement of the standard of education formerly available by the Portuguese community. In the Bridges Street Poor Schools as many as 91.66 per cent. of the children passed, being an increase of 52.77 per cent. over the result of the first year's examination. In the Italian Convent School, which has been examined for the first time and was accordingly under considerable disadvantages, as many as 86.48 per cent. of the children passed. The Portuguese division in St. Francis' School has also been highly successful, but the English division of the same School is too poorly attended to do credit to the excellency of the teaching of the Italian Sisters.
15. The Hongkong Public School has evidently been much improved by the present Master, as the general range of intelligence displayed by the boys, and the excellent method and discipline of this School amply testified. I have also above referred to the praiseworthy addition of extra subjects included in the programme of this School in 1882. But as the increase in the work of the School was not accompanied by a proportionate increase of time devoted to schooling, the result has been disappointing as far as a mere pass examination is concerned. Although, out of 4 boys, 3 boys passed in Euclid, 2 boys in geology and 2 in physical geography, yet only 2 passes could be counted for a grant in these extra-subjects, as there were failures in the ordinary subjects (arithmetic and geography). These details will explain the decrease of 7.15 per cent. in the passes obtained by the School, but I must further mention that, in my opinion, the boys did not do justice either to themselves or to their Master because, having been separately examined by the Manager of the School for purpose of the annual prize giving but a few days before the Government examination, the boys saw no immediate purpose served by a renewed examination and did not work, therefore with a will when examined once more. It is but due to the Master, of whose efficiency I have the highest opinion, that I should mention these facts.
16. The vernacular Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class I of the Code, which give a Chinese education, combined with Christian teaching, in the Chinese language, call for no individual remarks, as the results of the examinations are sufficiently illustrated by the details which will be found in the Tables appended to this Report. I may allude, however to some points of general interest.
17. When referring, in my last Annual Report, to certain evil tendencies arising from some of the provisions of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, I ought to have also pointed out, at the same time, that, whatever evil tendencies are called forth, for instance, by the high personal bonus paid to Masters of Schools in Class I, the good effect which these same provisions exercise may be considered as more than counterbalancing the mercenary spirit and the subterfuges arising among Chinese Masters through the system of payment by results which forms the quintessence of the Code. Falsification of the daily attendance roll, which is one of the commonest subterfuges adopted by that mercenary spirit alive among the Chinese Masters, will be effectually checked to a great extent by enforcing the rule which for years past has been enforced in the Government Schools of the Colony, viz. that the daily attendance roll should be filled up punctually at 11 A.M. and that the slightest deviation from this regulation be treated as a serious breach of order and unsparingly visited with a fine. I found last year that some of the Chinese Masters in Grant-in-Aid Schools persisted in filling up the daily attendance roll during the recess for the noon-day meal, making it thereby impossible for me to detect one special form of falsification of the roll, whether I inspected a school in the forenoon or in the afternoon.
18. From premature applications made, at the close of the year 1882, by some Chinese Masters for new schools to be opened in 1883, I obtained renewed proof of the tendency existing among Chinese Masters to take advantage of the liberality of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme for the furtherance of private purposes. They sought to secure a promise on the part of the Government to receive, under the provisions of the Code, Schools which profess to be bona fide public Schools but which are in reality private Schools intended for private emolument.
19. As a curious illustration of the continued prevalence of kidnapping practices in Hongkong, mention that I noticed in 1882 several cases in which Chinese girls, living at a great distance from school and having to traverse on their way to and from school the most crowded portion of the town, were dressed like boys and attended, all through the year, Girls-schools in boys' dress.
20. I enclose the usual Tables, I to XVI, containing the Educational Statistics for the year 1882.
I have the honour to be
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
E. J. EITEL, PH.D.,
Inspector of Schools.
The Honourable F. STEWART, LL.D.
Acting Colonial Secretary.