1874 — Page 195

No. 30.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

The following Annual Report on the state of the Government Schools in Hongkong for the Year [874, is published for general information.

By Command,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 23rd February, 1875.

No. 17.

J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.

HONGKONG, 17th February, 1875.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward to you the Blue Book Returns and the Annual Report on Education in the Colony for 1874.

2. The total number of scholars taught in the schools which are subject to Government super- rision was 2,563, giving an increase of 283 over the previous year. This increase was not confined any one class of school, but was general throughout. In the Government Schools, properly so called, there was an increase of 93, and in the schools which receive grants-in-aid there was an increase of 190.

The

3. In the attendance, too, there was a marked increase, the minimum being 126 in advance of 1873. This is the more satisfactory, as the typhoon of the 23rd September last, was at one time supposed to have completely disorganized most of the schools for the remainder of the year. break in the attendance was, however, of comparatively short duration. Where the schoolhouses were demolished, others were rented within a fortnight; and, except in the case of one or two chools, it would hardly have been known by the middle of October, that anything unusual had happened. The Chinese take disaster very stoically, and they are not at all exacting in the matters of comfort and accommodation when they have to shift into temporary quarters.

4. The schoolhouses at Aberdeen, Ap-li Chau, Mong Kok and Yau-má Ti were completely lestroyed, and the masters made very narrow escapes with their lives. The masters at Ap-li Chau and Mong Kok had put the school records in their sleeves when they saw that they must flee; and ith these, the only things they could save, they escaped from their falling houses into water which pached to their shoulders. Both men are in very bad health, due doubtless to anxiety and exposure. 5. All the other schoolhouses suffered more or less, but a vacancy of ten days was, in most cases, mfficient to enable the repairs to be made.

6. The Village Schools supported by Government call for no special remark. The number If scholars advanced froin 998 of the previous year to 1,054. The attention of the masters was alled at the beginning of the year to the importance of teaching Geography, and the result was very atisfactory. The geography of China, to which the teaching for the year was confined, was in one putwo cases coinmitted to memory as it stood in the book, and few intelligent answers could be btained to questions which the book did not contain; but, in the majority of cases the subject was arly taught and understood. Notwithstanding this, geography is looked upon as an innovation; md, if constant supervision were not exercised, the study would soon disappear from the schools. the fact that the teaching is, for the present, confined to the geography of the "Eighteen l'rovinces" to be found the only lever by which the conservatism of the masters could be moved.

7. As soon as a suitable book can be prepared, Arithmetic will be introduced into the schools: nt, considering that none of the masters have had any special training in figures, it is perhaps unwise refer to the experiment. There is no inaptitude on the part of Chinese boys for the study. On contrary, they advance rapidly in it; but, until trained masters can be got for the schools, it is opeless to look for real progress in subjects which depart from the beaten track of Chinese school- earning.

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8. The question of a Training School for teachers is a very difficult one for Hongkong. If the ime were ripe for a revolution against the traditions of centuries, a training school here would erve for the adjoining Province as well as for the Colony; but such an era is too far distant to be eriously thought of. The consequence, therefore, is that, to get an efficient training school, the Colony would have to go to great expense for the training of three or four masters a year, after the first

forty or fifty had been made competent. The English schools in the Colony will, some day, Pave the way for such an institution; but, at present, they are almost useless for that purpose, as the pase of the Aberdeen school will show.

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