AnnualReport-1881 — Page 68

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3rd April, 1881, as many as 6,587 children were returned as scholars, and it may safely be assumed that nearly all of them attended schools in the Colony at that time. Deducting from this number the number of scholars enrolled in the secular and denominational schools under Government inspection (4,372), I find that there were 2,215 scholars attending private schools. The Census of 1881 enables me also to calculate, more satisfactorily than it was possible to do so in previous years, the proportion of educated to uneducated children in the Colony. It appears, on an approximate calculation (sec Table XVI appended to this report) that, out of 21,869 children under 16 years of age, resident in the Colony in 1881, there were 6,587 returned as scholars, and that about 5,467 were then less thari five years of

of age. Hence I infer that the number of children who ought to have been in school, but did not attend any school in 1881, amounted to about 9,815. This estimate is, however, but an approxi mate one, and as it includes children up to 16 years of age, while many leave school when 14 or 15 years of age, this estimate is certainly rather above than below the mark. I am, therefore, inclined to think that the number of uneducated children, who did not attend school in 1881, may safely be estimated at 8,000. Considering, however, that almost all the existing schools in the Colony are much over-crowded, it appears to me very likely that the number 8,000 represents not merely the number of uneducated children in the Colony, but the number of children for whom there is actually no school provided by public or private means, Further, as the number of girls (859) who attended known schools in 1881 is, when compared with the number of boys (about 4,000) attending such schools, very far below the ratio of proportion of native boys (10,824) and girls (10,340) resident in the Colony, it seems to me safe to assume that a vast majority of those 8,000 uneducated children, for whom there is no school provided, are girls. The observations I made in all parts of the Colony incline me also to the opinion, that this want of schools and school accommodation for about 8,000 children exists: principally in the central parts of the town, where rent is too high to enable the ordinary Chinese teachers to make a living out of the small fees commonly paid in ordinary Chinese schools. There is no lack of demand for education of some sort among the Chinese people of this Colony, whether resident in the town or in the villages, but with the exception of the villages, where the Aid System is freely availed of by the people, none of the Kaifong (native residents) of Hongkong have yet applied to the Government for grants-in-aid for educational purposes.

5. Female education appears to be making slight progress in the Colony. As the Grant-in-Aid schools give year by year increased attention to female education, the number of girls attending Government schools continues to decrease from year to year. The number of girls attending Govern- ment schools fell in 1878 to 235, in 1879 to 179, in 1880 to 138 and in 1881 to 120. On the other hand, in the Grant-in-Aid schools the attendance of girls rose during the same years from 343 in 1878, to 431 in 1879, to 564 in 1880 and to 739 in 1881. As regards the Chinese population of the Colony, the Census of 1881 records a total of 10,824 boys and 10,340 girls resident in the Colony. Apart from the girls' schools under Government inspection, and numbering in 1881 but $59 girls, there are very few girls' schools in existence in the Colony. There is therefore clearly a great educational want unfulfilled yet. I have stated above my opinion that a vast majority of the 8,000 uneducated children of this Colony are girls. If I add here that nearly all these children are Chinese and that a considerable number of these girls are not living with their own parents, but are purchased servant girls, though of tender age, and live under a sort of servitude, the need to provide for their education becomes even more apparent. Although the Chinese are, as a rule, very anxious to send their own children to school, they do not care to give their purchased servant girls any education. It is against the interests of the employer to send them to school. I am no advocate of compulsory education, but I think the peculiar circumstances of this Colony and the prevalence of domestic female servitude in Hongkong recommend a partial application of the system of compulsory education, in purely Chinese subjects, to those classes of Chinese females regarding which the Government (as the proper guardian of such purchased children whose parents are in most cases not living in Hongkong) has an interest, if not a duty, to make sure that such girls know, or at least have an opportunity of learning, that they are free.

6. Considering the steadily increasing number of schools teaching English, it is evident that there is from year to year a steady progress made in the promotion of a knowledge of English in this Colony. Besides 7 Government schools which teach English in addition to Chinese, there were in 1881 seven Grant-in-Aid schools teaching English only. The total number of children learning English in schools under Government supervision amounted to 1334.

7. The work done by the Government Central School in 1881, has been tested by me by an examination which I conducted on the same principles which I follow in the annual examinations of the Grant-in-Aid schools, but with such adaptations as the peculiar case of the Central School demanded. As regards Chinese studies, for which there is now but little time available in the Central School, since the number of hours during which the school is taught every day has been reduced from 8 to 6 hours, I may here briefly state that the results of the Chinese examination, which I conducted, shewed that in Chinese composition a fair result had been obtained, but that Chinese memoriter repeti- tion of the classics cannot be kept up now. But as the change was made in the latter portion of the year, it is too soon yet to come to a satisfactory decision. It would be useless therefore to detail here' the results of the Chinese examination. But the results of the English examination may be stated as follows.