GOVERNMENT EDUCATION, HONGKONG.
The following Annual Report from the Inspector of Schools, with Appendices and Supplement, published for general information.
By Command,
J. M. PRICE, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 2nd July, 1878.
[No. 18.]
HONGKONG, 8th February, 1878.
SIR-I have the honour to forward to you the Annual Report on Education and the Blue Book Returns for 1877.
2. Taking all the schools subject to Government supervision together, there was an increase in the total number of scholars, amounting to seven and a half per cent., as compared with the preceding
year.
3. In the Government Schools, to which there was no addition during the year, there was a decrease in numbers of one per cent., although there was an increase of six per cent. at the Central School. This, however, is the only decrease that has to be reported. In every other respect there was marked improvement. The average monthly enrolment was seven and a half per cent., the minimum monthly enrolment was fourteen and a half per cent., the average daily attendance for the year was six and a half per cent., and the minimum daily attendance was eleven and three fifths per cent. higher than in 1876.
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3. The decrease in the native schools maintained by the Government was fifteen, equivalent to e and a fifth per cent., and is therefore hardly worth noticing. The chief decrease is to be found in the native aided schools. In these it amounted to forty-one, equivalent to nine and a half per cent. No satisfactory reasons could be obtained for the falling off, except the usual ones of the poverty and indifference of the people.
4. The Grant-in-Aid Schools made a great advance. Three new ones were admitted during the year, adding 140 scholars to the list. This, with an increase of 105 at the previously existing schools. gives an increase of thirty-two and a half per cent. on the numbers of the previous year.
5. At the Government Schools there was an increase of ten per cent. in the number of girls, and the Grant-in-Aid Schools there was an increase of eighteen per cent. The total number of girls as
pared with that of boys, in the schools taken collectively, was in the proportion of one to four.
6. As regards the Central School, there is nothing to add to previous reports beyond the increase six per cent, already mentioned, and an increase of nearly ten per cent. in the average daily attendance. The total number of scholars enrolled was 610, and the average daily attendance was 431. Many plicants had, as usual, to be refused admission for want of accommodation. A very great loss was stained in the death of Mr. GAIR, the Third Master, whose indomitable energy, great firmness, and ar bigh qualifications added greatly to the efficiency and discipline of the school.
7. The other schools under the direct supervision of the Government require little comment. Five were ranked very good, seven good, and the remaining seventeen fair. Of the five schools in the irst rank the two at Tang-lung Chau, which appear for the first time in that category, were found to have made very great progress. In addition to a proper amount of ordinary Chinese work, the School k Committee's Series and Geography had been thoroughly well taught. In the Hakká School every scholar answered with the greatest readiness the questions in Geography which were put. These two schools were long very backward, but with the present masters there should be no return to that
satisfactory condition.
As to the fnsufficient teaching of English, see result of Mr. Srɛwart's examination of the pupils, pp. 317-320.