EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, HONG KONG.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1938.
PART 1.
PREFACE.
The Island of Hong Kong is a Crown Colony and was ceded to Great Britain in 1841. At that time it was very sparsely populated by fishermen and agriculturists. In 1861 a few square miles of the mainland opposite, the peninsula of Kowloon, fell under British control and became part of the Colony. In 1898, another fragment of the adjacent mainland, some 300 square miles in extent, and a number of neighbouring islets, were leased to the Colony by China: collectively these last acquisitions are called the New Territories. In this report the term Colony includes Hong Kong, Kowloon, and the New Territories.
Not from the first day of its cession could Hong Kong complain that its religious and educational wants were unheeded. During the governorship of Sir H. Pottinger (1841-1844) the Church of England, the Roman Catholics and Nonconformists were already at work. The Morrison School was founded by the late Rev. Dr. J. Legge, subsequently famous throughout China for his edition of the Classics, and late Professor of Chinese at Oxford. About the same time the Colonial Chaplain, the Rev. V. Stanton, founded St. Paul's College as a training college for native clergy. It still exists after various vicissitudes as a secondary school for boys.
About this time the Government started its interest in Education, this interest taking the form of a grant of $5 a month to ten small schools and the appointment of a Committee of Education to control it. In 1850 this committee in reporting on the aided schools said "all the teachers are professed Christians" and named Bishop Bone's catechism in a list of the school books—a Chinese translation compulsorily taught to the sons of unbelieving peasants.
In 1855 an effort was made by the European community to start a public school --St. Andrew's--for their sons. It survived seven years and apparently fulfilled its purpose. From an examination report it seems that boys of no less than ten nationalities attended the school.
By 1858 there were besides St. Andrew's School, 13 Government schools with an average attendance of 400 pupils, 4 missionary schools (2 Protestant and 2 Roman Catholic) with an average attendance of 100. In the Government schools the rudiments of English were now taught for the first time.
In 1859 Dr. Legge became predominant in the councils of Education and he led a successful movement to modify the existing policy of the Government, which might have been summed up in the words, "Christianity through letters." During the following year Dr. Legge, supported by the new Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson, merged certain of the small Government schools into a Central School, which still exists to-day under the name of Queen's College. The first headmaster, Dr. Stewart, was also appointed Inspector of Schools to the Board of Education; the Board however was abolished in 1865.
This completed Dr. Legge's revolution. The Education Department was now no longer under the direction of the Bishop of Victoria; it became a civil department under the Inspector of Schools directly responsible to the Governor.
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