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14. The large increase in numbers during the past three years made it necessary to enlarge the school premises of two of the schools, Saiyingpun and Wantsai. The additions, which consisted of a second storey containing three classrooms at Saiyingpun School and three new classrooms and an office for the headmaster at Wantsai, were begun early in the year and finished in August. Meanwhile, it was found that the addition of three schoolrooms at Saiyingpun School would not suffice for the increasing number of pupils. Furthermore, it had been decided to reduce the numbers at Queen's College from 1,100 to 1,000. Extra accommodation at one or other of the District Schools was therefore essential, and the Government decided to add two more schoolrooms to the Saiyingpun building. The school premises had to be vacated for four months. They were re-occupied in September, and the final additions were completed in October. Saiyingpun School can now accommodate 520 boys, and Wantsai School 443.
Twenty-nine boys were admitted from these schools to Queen's College this year, as compared with 33 in 1907. This number includes four free scholars selected by competition between the top boys of the three District Schools. The four free scholars selected all came from Yaumati School last year. The third boy on the list, a Saiyingpun boy, was unfortunately unable to accept a free scholarship, which therefore went to the fifth, a boy who only one year previously had obtained a free scholarship from Tai Po Lower Grade District School to Yaumati.
All three schools have been provided with playgrounds during the year. These have become a necessity owing to the increasing interest taken by the boys in sports, and more especially in football. There is also a gymnasium at Wantsai School, which is fitted up with parallel bars and rings. The apparatus is not complete.
The District Schools, Lower Grade.
15. The Anglo-Indian School. The school again underwent a change owing to the transfer of the headmaster, Mr. Mohamed Akbar, to another branch of the Government service. Mr. Bishen Singh succeeded him. It is a matter of regret that the average attendance shows no signs of improving. Plague in the vicinity of the school accounted for the poor attendance during the summer months, but even after the temporary transfer of the school in July to the Belilios Reformatory, a healthy building in a good locality, the numbers did not improve to an appreciable extent. The average attendance is 27 for 1908, as compared with 34 in 1907. The grant of a free scholarship to Queen's College, tenable for four years, has so far also failed to attract more pupils to the school.
Anglo-Chinese Schools, Lower Grade.
16. There are four of these schools, one at Aberdeen in Hongkong, one in the island of Cheung Chau, and two on the mainland (at Tai Po and at Ping Shan). The attendance shows an improvement for the year, excepting at Aberdeen, where the numbers fell from 21 to 13. The new school at Cheung Chau has the best average attendance, namely 28. The Lower Grade Schools suffer from the fact that the masters have no facility for improving their knowledge, either of English or of methods of instruction. In Hongkong, Chinese masters can improve themselves by taking courses at the Technical Institute in a large variety of subjects, which are of practical utility to them, chief among which is the English course for masters. Attendance at this class is compulsory in the case of all Assistant masters in or below Grade III.
Vernacular School.
17. Belilios Public Girls' School. This school still continues to increase in popularity. The average attendance was 243, as compared with 237 in 1907, and this in spite of the fact that the school fees were raised early in the year from 25 cents to 50 cents per mensem.
The total fees collected were $1,363, as against $763 in 1907. It is satisfactory to note that a gradual rapprochement between this division and the Anglo-Chinese Division is being effected, due mainly to the introduction of Chinese as a compulsory subject in the latter division. Five girls were admitted from the Vernacular to the Anglo-Chinese Division at the end of the year, as against four in 1907. This is the only Government Vernacular School, viz., school in which the medium of instruction is Chinese.