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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
IV.-EDUCATION.
The educational system of the Colony is still undergoing revision, and the results which may be expected from the changes cannot yet be judged with exactness. The demand among the Chinese for instruction in the English language continues to increase, and every effort is made to meet that demand and to render the methods of instruction as thorough as possible. All the Anglo-Chinese schools have their full complement of pupils, and Queen's College, the principal school in the Colony, is unfortunately obliged, through lack of accommodation, to refuse admittance to many applicants. A Sub-Committee of the Governing Body of that institution was appointed during the year to draw up a course of study for the Chinese classes in the College. The same course has been adopted in the Anglo-Chinese District Schools, and in most of the Anglo-Chinese and Vernacular Grant Schools.
One of the most important changes recommended by the Committee on Education which sat in 1902 was the substitution of a new Code for the then existing Grant-in-aid Code. The new Code was drafted early in the year under review and has met with general approval. It was decided not to bring it into universal operation till January 1st, 1904, but schools were permitted, if they so desired, to adopt it from the 1st July, 1903. About one-half of them elected to do so. The following are some of the points of difference which distinguish the new from the old Code:
(a.) The Grants are paid upon the results of the Inspector's observation throughout the year, and not upon the success or otherwise of individual scholars at an annual examination.
(b.) The Code recognizes that schools employing a well-educated staff are worthy of special treatment by giving a higher rate of Grant, paid in sterling, to such schools. The staff must, in order to meet the requirements of the Code in this respect, be partly composed of Europeans, or natives of very unusual qualifications.
(c.) The old Code gave Grants to schools giving a Chinese education on the time-honoured Chinese lines, as well as to schools in which Portuguese or German was the medium of instruction. The present Code recognizes only modern Western methods of imparting instruction, and insists that either English or Chinese must be the medium of instruction; other languages may of course be studied as class subjects.
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