PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
Reference :-
T ། ། T lCO. 88?
| | | | | | | | | | | | | ||ππ||
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
Page 67. Sect. 49.
Par. 26.
Par. 22.
and trained teachers. The cost of getting them from England is prohibitive, except to a limited extent. I am sceptical about establishing a Normal School, and think that it would be more economical and produce better results to leaven the staff of Chinese teachers who teach English with as large a number of English masters as the Colony can afford.
With regard to the Anglo-Chinese Grant Schools it would be unreasonable to impose any such condition on the managers as is recommended by tle Committee. On this point the Bishop is, in my opinion, perfectly right. This Government should lay down the terms on which it will make grants, and it should be left to the managers to bring their schools up to the standard to earn a grant.
To refer now to the schools for which the Government makes itself responsible. The first duty is to maintain Vernacular Schools. The views of the Committee should be adopted, except that I differ entirely as to one (A) of the proposed induce- ments to children to prolong their studies at school. The teaching of English in a Vernacular School for Chinese would result in the worst kind of matter- ing. The other inducement (B) is eminently right in principle, and will be found valuable in practice. Regarding the teaching of Western knowledge there are now many excellent works published in Chinese in the north of China, which would be found of great use to this end both in the Vernacular Schools and in the Anglo-Chinese Schools.
The Anglo-Chinese Schools should, as recom- mended, be the next step in the scheme of educa- tion. No Chinese boy should be admitted to these schools until he can pass the approved standard in the Chinese written language. The inducements suggested to keep boys as long as possible in their schools might properly be adopted.
Queen's College requires very careful consider- ation. The test of examination should not be taken alone in judging its efficiency. It is an institution which can evidently be improved, and, so far as I can judge, only one radical change is required. This change is in regard to Chinese teaching. The Governor is, I gather, in favour of returning to the practice of having a Chinese side in the College, so that approval of this reversion to the original scheme of education in the principal school in the Colony can be without delay carried into effect. Chinese
boys should only be allowed to enter the English side after passing through the Chinese School in the College, or from one of the Anglo-Chinese Schools.
I do not concur with the Committee that other than Chinese should be excluded from Queen's College. My experience, such as it is, does not go so far as those who advocate the separation of races in reference to the harm done to the English boy by his association with the Chinese. But I am quite
certain of this, that it is to the general advantage of education in English that English and Chinese boys should be thrown as much as possible together under due supervision. Hence, although provision is about to be made, and properly made, for the separate education of English boys, I see no reason why English or any boys of any European nation- ality should be shut out from Queen's College. In all probability the cost of education in the proposed school for English boys will be higher than the cost of education in Queen's College, and some parents would therefore be glad to avail themselves of the latter institution.
I refrain from adding anything about the rate of salaries or the fees in Queen's College (or any of the schools). These details must be settled locally, in accordance with the state of the market. I notice that Dr. Wright is very tender on the point of holding out attractions to Chinese parents, and among those attractions is the curious one of having an "over-crowded institution." Discipline in regard to attendance is seemingly indifferently maintained, because, according to the table published in para- graph 3 of the report, the average attendance is only 894 out of a total number on the roll of 1,483. If Chinese parents are made to understand that boys who do not attend regularly will be turned out, and no fees returned, they will take care that the average attendance is far higher than is now the case.
Before closing these remarks I should like to add a few words about the proposal to substitute a Government examination for the Oxford Local examination (p. 11, section 22), and, as I conclude is the desire of the Committee, to stop any proposal to give scholarships to enable students to complete their studies in this country for a professional career (p. 97, section 93). It is exceedingly difficult for any such Colony as Hong-Kong to maintain a proper standard of teaching, and it is also exceedingly diffi- cult to ensure in any such Colony being able to rely on having the services of competent examiners. As regards the latter point, it may be able to do so at any one time, but it is not possible to do so as a continuance, and any break would be very harm- ful to the educational system in the Colony. Very few of the members of the Civil Service know how to examine, and any of those who do can only devote to the work time that can be ill spared in a trying climate for such a duty. It is true that the Oxford (or Cambridge) Syndicate do not give sufficient attention to local circumstances, but this might, to a considerable extent, be obviated by the Inspector of Schools keeping himself in touch with the Syndi cate. If he is still in England he could not do better than go to Oxford and discuss the matter with the authorities.
With regard to the scholarships to be competed for by those who desire to qualify for a professional career, it is unnecessary for me to do more than to
Sir H. Blake's
despatch
No. 280 of
Sept. 24, 1901.
4
recommend that the Government should be urged to refuse to adopt the views of the Committee. No better stimulus has yet been devised for improving education generally in a Colony like Hong-Kong, and more good will result from the expenditure of the money required for such scholarships than is at all likely to be achieved by attempting to attract Chinese not belonging to the Colony to enter the proposed school for the upper classes of that nationality.
C. C. S.
July 29, 1902.
1