童八百四十名其閻學英
漢文粗淺英語遺忘矣惟聖會議學專教英文漫分時候是以獲益良多彼童歸家雖耳所聞者多是西洋中華言語迨出塾時說英語繕英文兩者俱佳 肄業五六年間均計每日學習英文一時三刻或備二時兼之大書院在該時期兼教方學代數化學等無怪乎遞年出院之童莫能說英語矣更無怪夫
同類者爲陪審之員按此數輩以華人而得備陪審人員之列或在港另有善說英語之華人若稍其肄業之區則自香港而外考由此觀之香港教習英一節所有虧欠顯然易見矣推原其故監院以爲實因國家書館一向分時兼教英文華文漢文字敩學之頗難學童歸家耳不聞英語況在塾
竟不能發六人之數因照港例即一千八百六十四年第十一條則例第四欸凡不闇英語者不得備陪審人員之列致健華人有因罪被鞫而不獲與其
即本港能說英語之少年與十年來之教誨一較歴時如此之久效如此之少誠不敷也現在香港居民華人不下十三萬五千欲從中選舉陪審人員
書塾肄業五年要之如此教法倘果有益則少年子弟善說英語者今不乏人矣但自問絕不偏私實在可云現能說英語者寥寥無幾叉除英人子女外
十名皆循法竭力兼教英文華文者監院以爲照你去歲之數而言溯臼十年來均計每年可得學學英文或兼學英文華文之童九百名又彼等各在
教英文者或兼教英文華文者去歲學童共二百二十二名义有天主教耶穌教各聖會之輔翼義學專學英文著三百六十名合共學童約一千八百八
不計有四百之多惜其教法仍有未備者更有國家大書院骓訓英文華文者去歲學童九百九十名又有國家各義學或專
惟國家書塾則更欲爲所不能爲兼以忍耐堅守成法實足驚奇殊堪拜服
more or less English teaching also tainted with imperfection. Adding to this number 590 boys
who were taught both English and Chinese in the Central School last year and 222 boys taught
English or English and Chinese conjointly in outside Government Schools, also 368 children
who received exclusively English teaching in Grant-in-aid Schools, both Catholic and Protestant, we have a total of 1,880 children under some sort of methodic and on the whole good
English or Anglo-Chinese tuition. I feel sure I
am not far wrong if I add, on the basis of the
statistics of last year, that for the last twenty
years an annual average of 900 children has been.
under English or Anglo-Chinese instruction, and
that each child attended such teaching on an
average for 5 years. Yet, considering what a
number of English speaking young people there
ought to be in the Colony if this teaching was at
all effective, the fact strikes every impartial observer that the number of English speaking inhabitants is very small in the Colony and that, apart from the children of English parents, the
number of English speaking young men and women in the Colony is out of all proportion with
the amount of English teaching given during the
last twenty years. Out of a population of at least 135,000 Chinese resident in this Colony, we cannot muster even half a dozen Chinese on the
Jury list, as under Ordinance No. 11 of 1864,
Section IV, no person ignorant of the English
language can serve as a Juror, the effect of which is that Chinese offenders are generally tried by Jurors who are not their peers. Most of those Chinese who are Jurors or who do speak English fluently are found, on inquiry, to have been educated outside of this Colony. The principal cause of this manifest educational failure, as far as English speaking is concerned, I see in the attempt which the Government Schools of this Colony have all along made of dividing their limited time between English and Chinese teaching.
As the Chinese written language is extraordinarily difficult, as almost all the children in Government Schools never hear English spoken in home, and are on an average only 5 or 6 years at school and scarcely more than 3 hours per diem at English studies into which-in the case of the Central School-even Geometry, Algebra and Chemistry are crammed, it is not to be wondered at that an overwhelming majority of scholars leave our Government Schools year after year unable to speak English and with but a smattering of the written Chinese language, whilst sure to forget soon again most of the English knowledge acquired in school, Those Grant-in-aid Schools which teach English at all give their whole undivided time to it and the result is of course satisfactory; though most of those children hear but Portuguese or Chinese spoken in their homes, they leave school able to speak English and able to write it to a certain extent with facility.
It is only in the Government Schools that the Danaide labour of trying to do the impossible is still continued with a perseverance worthy of all admiration.