M 3
Queen's College stands, as regards the numbers in its three highest Classes, far above any other school in the Colony. In other respects I am unable to report that it has acquired the predominance which it is the hope of the Staff and myself that it may win before long.
Some weak points however have already been remedied; and others are easily remediable with time and patience.
Staff. While I have nothing but good to say, from what I have seen hitherto, of the energy and willingness of the Chinese Masters, they are not all at present quite fit to cope unaided with the work required of them. At the end of the year, the following Divisions were under Chinese Masters in independent control, IV a, c, d, e and two Divisions of Class V.
I have with the concurrence of the Headmaster decided that all these six Masters shall be put under the orders and control of the Normal Master, whose excellent work is producing valuable results.
Course of Instruction. The school has not yet published any formulated and comprehensive course of instruction.
This is a serious defect. Without one, neither parents nor boys, perhaps not even the Staff, can clearly see the scope of the education which it is intended to provide. Simple courses have during the last few years been drawn up for the District Schools, the Girls' Grant Schools and the Vernacular Schools. Something on the same lines but more elaborate, is required for Queen's College.
More elaborate, because the College still presents as an organism a degree of homogeneity, all out of keeping with the heterogeneous wants it needs fulfil. Its organisation admits of far too brief a description. It consists of six Classes each of from two to five Divisions. Almost all the Divisions of a Class do the same work. Practically all boys are promoted from one Class to the next higher once a year. As to which Division they enter, that depends solely on the number of marks they earn at the annual or Headmaster's examination. In that examination all subjects count equally. The first and overwhelming objection to this simple arrangement (which will be modified in future) is that it does not meet the various and legitimate wants of the pupils. It contrasts curiously with the scheme of any great English School with its Classical and Modern Side, its Army, Commercial and Engineering Classes, and so on.
I have arranged with the Headmaster that in future the standard set for the A Divisions of Classes in the Upper School shall be that of the Oxford Local Senior, Junior and Preliminary examinations respectively.
In drawing up a curriculum, special attention will have to be given to the subject of Chinese, in which the College is weak, especially in the Upper Classes.
English cannot be learned without reading. Pupils cannot read without books. Queen's College differs from senior schools of the Colony in having no library. This defect is being made good.