M 2
The fees charged in the Private Vernacular Schools average $1.25 a month; the Grant Vernacular Schools make no charge in most cases. It is probably fair to say that except the Belilios Public School and one or two others, the Vernacular Schools under the Education Department represent the leavings of Vernacular Education.
The contrary is the truth as regards an education in English. The dotted red line in Table II marking the progress of the Private English Schools seems to prove that there is little money to be made out of teaching a smattering of English at low fees. Among the Private Schools are included two of great importance, St. Stephen's College (maximum enrolment 120) and St. Paul's College (50): there is also an institution known as the South China Academy. In the remaining 24 Private Schools the fees average $2.75 a month. There are also 28 night schools in which English is taught to 659 pupils.
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
The expenditure upon education has increased by $13,481 ($219,359: $205,875), as is shown in Table V, and the revenue has increased by $13,611 ($68,214: $54,603) as is shown in Table I. The net result is a percentage of Revenue to Expenditure of 43.84, which is a high figure. At Government Schools the cost per unit (average attendance) fell to $37.15, the lowest it has been since 1902. At the Grant Schools on the contrary it is higher than ever before. This is due to the higher proportion of pupils in the Upper Grade Schools. Indeed there is no simpler and fairer indication of the progress of education in Hongkong than the steady increase in the average cost per pupil at Grant Schools since 1903, when the new Code and new rates of Grant came into force.
DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION,
Upon the retirement of Dr. Wright in April, to which allusion is made below, Queen's College was placed under the control of the Head of the Education Department, whose title was changed from "Inspector of Schools" to that of "Director of Education".
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.
A list of Government Schools with the usual statistics is given in Table I.
The Retrenchment Committee, while recommending but few reductions in the Staff of the Department, pointed out the advisability of increasing the fees charged in some Government Schools. The fees for new pupils were consequently increased from $4 to $5 at Queen's College; from $2 to $4 at Saiyingpun; from $2 to $3 at Yaumati and Wantsai; and from 50 cents to $1 at the Belilios Public School, Vernacular Side.
QUEEN'S COLLEGE.
The Annual Report of the Headmaster, extracts from which are given below, sets forth the general history of the College for the year under review.