Appendix M.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION.
NUMBERS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS.
The number of Government Schools, of which details are given in Tables I and III, remains unchanged; but Aberdeen School has proved unsuccessful, and was closed at the end of 1909. For reasons given below, the two sides of Belilios Public School have been treated as forming one school.
No important changes have taken place in the number and classification of the Grant Schools. One small Vernacular School has been closed, number 32.
NUMBERS OF PUPILS.
The numbers in average attendance are dealt with in Tables I, II and III. The total number is 6,560 as compared with 6,178 last year. Table I shows the numbers at Government Schools to be 2,326 as compared with 2,223 last year. The numbers were purposely reduced at Queen's College.
The three feeders to the College on the other hand, and especially Saiyingpun, show marked increases, (932: 771). The two British Schools, Kowloon Girls' School and Victoria School show a combined slight decrease. Several of the less important schools also have declined in numbers. The increase at the Belilios Public School (Girls) is noteworthy. Further details are given below under the headings of the schools.
The considerable increase in the numbers at Grant Schools (4,234: 3,927) is chiefly due to the increase of Chinese pupils in the lower Classes of the Ellis Kadoorie School and St. Joseph's College.
The steadily increasing numbers taking an English Education as shown in Table II does not adequately describe the rush for places in English Schools during the past year. If the numbers admitted had not been limited to suit the capacity of the Staffs and Class rooms, several hundred more pupils might have been enrolled.
The same Table (No. II) shows that the numbers taking a Vernacular Education have increased. The increase is due entirely to the development of the Belilios Public School. The small Vernacular Schools managed by the various Missions show a decline (2,011: 2,149). The satisfactory nature of the education given in these schools is considered under the heading Vernacular Education below; but their worldly success is very easily surpassed by that of the Private Vernacular Schools. Of these, careful records, so far as it is possible to obtain them, have been kept for several years. If the numbers shown by the black dotted line in Table II exaggerates their comparative importance as it undoubtedly does, it probably gives a true record of their rate of growth.