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children in the vernacular. The Western knowledge which is imparted in these Schools is generally of an elementary and fragmentary character, the teachers being chiefly drawn from the large class of Chinese pupils who have acquired in the Anglo-Chinese Schools of the Colony some of the little learning taught therein. "Arithmetic," say the Committee in their Report, is an optional subject, and the four simple rules are taught with fair success. Geography is taught (very badly) in the Fourth Standard, where many of the scholars were at the last examination ignorant that Hongkong was a British Colony, and a number hazarded the opinion that it belonged to Russia.
It appears that difficulties exist in the way of any radical improvement of the Vernacular Schools. Too much pressure brought to bear on the children with the object of teaching them either Western knowledge or their own written language by scientific methods might only result in emptying the Schools. The Committee appear to thoroughly consider the matter of making these Vernacular Schools more attractive, and the result is their proposal to use the undoubtedly keen desire to learn English as an allurement. I understand their recommendation to be that boys passing a certain standard in the Vernacular Schools should be admitted into the attached Anglo-Chinese Schools without the uncertainty of an entrance examination; while in the Grant Schools it will be open to the Managers to start English classes for boys who have reached a certain proficiency in their own language. These suggested means of employing the widely-spread desire of learning