Appendix M.
REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS.
NUMBER AND CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS.
1. The number of Government and Grant Schools (including Queen's College) is 73 as compared with 79 in 1907. One Government school, at Uen-Long, N.T., was closed early in the year owing to the poor attendance and 4 Grant Schools were also closed. Of these two were closed voluntarily by the managers and two were closed as inefficient. The Grant Schools closed were Vernacular Lower Grade Schools.
2. The Upper Grade Schools (with a staff competent to give instruction in all the subjects of Standard VII) are 23 in number and the Lower Grade Schools under native management number 50. The Lower Grade Anglo-Chinese* Grant Schools have not proved a success and only one now remains on the Grant List.
3. The total Average Attendance at Government and Grant Schools (including Queen's College) was 6,178 as against 5,924 in 1907. Of these 1,340 were in Government and 3,927 in Grant Schools. The larger attendance at the Government District Schools and at the Ellis Kadoorie Anglo-Chinese Grant School is responsible for the general increase in the average attendance during the year (shown in Table III). The decrease in the actual number of schools as compared with 1907 therefore merely indicates that inefficient schools are disappearing while the efficient ones are growing rapidly. The Anglo-Chinese schools in particular show a marked improvement in attendance. In 1907, 3,569 pupils received instruction in English. This number rose to 4,029 in the year under review. Pupils receiving instruction in the Vernacular have decreased from 2,355 in 1907 to 2,149 last year. The proportion of boys to girls is 3,640 boys to 2,538 girls—a slight increase in the number of girls as compared with 1907. The attendance suffered owing to a severe outbreak of Plague in the early summer; otherwise the figures would have shown a very much larger increase over those of 1907. Table II shows that while the number of pupils receiving an education in English has nearly doubled within recent years, those receiving a vernacular education are stationary. When the average cost per unit under instruction is considered, this point should be borne in mind, the difference between the educational value of the two classes of schools being at least as great as the corresponding difference between English Public and County Council schools. The average amount of the Educational Vote for the past few years is moreover swollen by the amount spent on the Technical Institute. Conclusions should be drawn from Table IV only with great caution.
* The term “Anglo-Chinese” means a school for Chinese in which the medium of instruction is English.
“Anglo-Indian” is similarly employed.
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
4. The revenue derived from School Fees amounted in 1908 to $58,534 as compared with $18,780 in 1907. To this amount the Education Department (including the Technical Institute $3,742) contributed $27,409 and Queen's College $31,125. The fees collected by the Education Department increased by $6,443 (including an increase of $1,557 in the fees of the Technical Institute) and those of Queen's College by $667 during the year. The increase is chiefly due to the larger attendance at the District Schools and also to the raising of the fees at the Belilios Public School, Vernacular Side, from 25 to 50 cents per mensem early in the year. The fees at the Technical Institute were raised at the beginning of the Winter Session (October 1908) from $4 to $6 per mensem. The fees show an increase at all schools excepting (i) the Anglo-Indian School where Plague in the neighbourhood of the school interfered with the attendance, (ii) Tanglungchau which was absorbed by Wantsai District School in August, and (iii) Aberdeen School where the attendance has been falling off for some time past for no assignable reason.
5. The expenditure on Education including Queen's College and the Technical Institute amounted to $205,874.74 or 3.41% of the total ordinary Revenue of the Colony as compared with an expenditure of $184,028 or 2.85% of the total ordinary Revenue of the Colony in 1907.
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.
6. A list of Government Schools with the usual statistics is given in Table I.
7. The average attendance of pupils in Government Schools (excluding Queen's College) was 1,340 as compared with 1,153 in 1907. There were 945 boys and 395 girls in attendance.