8. The Preparatory School was examined in reading, writing and arithmetic. Of 126 boys thus examined, only 104 had the requisite number of 200 attendances which in Grant-in-Aid schools is the sine-qua-non for admission to the examination. Counting therefore only these 104 boys who had the requisite number of attendances, I find that 10 failed in reading, 2 in writing and 4 in arithmetic; that 12 failed in one subject only, 1 failed in 2 subjects, and 1 in 3 subjects. Allowing then, in consideration of the fact that this school spends part of its time on Chinese studies, the copywriting to make up for failure in one subject, as the Grant-in-Aid Scheme allows in other standards, the net result of this examination is that, out of 104 boys examined, 2 failed to pass.
9. The Eighth Class was examined in reading, dictation, arithmetic and copywriting. Out of 39 boys examined, only 29 had the requisite number of attendances. Counting only these 29 boys, I find none failed in reading, 1 failed in dictation, 5 failed in arithmetic, none failed in copywriting. None failed in more than 1 subject. The result, therefore, is that the 29 boys examined passed without exception.
10. The Seventh Class was examined in reading, dictation, arithmetic and copywriting. Out of 41 boys examined, 36 had the requisite number of attendances. Counting only these 36 boys, I find that 2 failed in reading, 3 failed in dictation, 5 failed in arithmetic, and none failed in copywriting; that 11 failed in 1 subject only, and that 1 failed in 2 subjects. The result then is that, out of 36 boys examined, only 1 failed to pass.
11. The so-called Lower School, including the Sixth, Fifth and Fourth Classes, was examined in reading, dictation, arithmetic, geography, grammar and copywriting. Out of 93 boys examined, only 82 had the requisite number of attendances. Of these 82 boys, 10 failed in reading, 29 failed in dictation, 14 failed in arithmetic, 10 failed in geography, 5 failed in grammar and none failed in copywriting. I find that 21 failed in 1 subject only, but 12 failed in 2 subjects, 3 failed in 3 subjects and 3 failed in 4 subjects each. The result, therefore, is that, out of 82 boys examined, 18 failed to pass. The unfavourable result of this examination, the subjects of which, as in all other cases, had been fixed upon by myself in concert with the Headmaster and the Masters of these Classes, is in my opinion caused by the system of promoting boys from one class to another in the course of each term, which system appears to have still been in vogue in 1881. Some boys in this school had been admitted a few days before the examination took place, and many had evidently been moved out of the Preparatory or Eighth and Seventh Classes into this school before they were ripe for it.
12. The Third Class of the Central School was examined in reading, dictation, arithmetic, geography, grammar, composition and copywriting. Out of 27 boys examined, only 20 had the requisite number of attendances. Of these 20 boys none failed in reading, none in dictation, 5 failed in arithmetic, none failed in geography, 1 failed in grammar, 5 failed in composition, and none in copywriting. I find 7 failed in 1 subject only, 2 failed in 2 subjects each. The result is, therefore, that, out of 20 boys examined, 2 failed to pass.
13. The Second Class of the Central School was examined in reading, dictation, arithmetic, geography, grammar, composition and copywriting. Out of 26 boys examined, 24 had the requisite number of attendances. Of these 24 boys, none failed in dictation, 1 failed in composition, but none failed in any of the other subjects. I find that 1 failed in 1 subject only, and 2 failed in 2 subjects each. The result, therefore, is that, out of 24 boys, 2 failed to pass.
14. The First Class of the Central School was examined in reading, dictation, arithmetic, geography, composition, history and copywriting. Out of 33 boys examined, 28 had the requisite number of attendances. I find that, out of 28 boys, none failed in reading, 4 failed in dictation, 7 failed in arithmetic, 5 failed in geography, 1 failed in composition, 5 failed in history and none failed in copywriting. I further find that 3 failed in 1 subject only, 4 failed in 2 subjects, 1 failed in 3 subjects and 2 failed in 4 subjects each. The result is, therefore, that, out of 28 boys examined in this high standard, in which Grant-in-Aid schools bring forward but very few boys, out of 28 boys examined, 7 failed to pass.
15. The result total of the examination of the Central School appears to me to have been satisfactory. It is hardly possible to compare the Central School with any other school in the Colony, because, with the exception of the Diocesan School, which as a boarding school differs widely from the Central School, none other in the Colony combines English and Chinese teaching. The Diocesan School, which devotes part of every afternoon to Chinese teaching and gives the rest of the day to English teaching, does not submit the result of the Chinese teaching to Government examination, as it receives no grant for it. All the other schools in the Colony, which teach English, devote the whole of their school hours exclusively to English teaching. The Central School surrenders 2 hours each day to Chinese teaching, not 24 hours. Under these circumstances it seems to me that the above detailed results of the Central School examinations, which, with the exception of the case of the Lower School, compare favourably with the results of most Grant-in-Aid schools, are satisfactory. This favourable result, obtained under adverse circumstances, is due no doubt to the excellent organisation and discipline of the Central School, next to the superior qualifications of its trained Masters.
16. The ordinary Government schools, which teach no English, and the Village schools, subsidized by the Government by a small monthly grant as Aided Schools, all of which teach Chinese...