313
The
13. The Anglo-Chinese Schools of the Government, located at Saiyingp'ún. Wántsai, Wong The examinations of these naich'ung, Stanley and Yaumáti do not call for special remarks this year. Schools shewed fair results, which is the more to be appreciated as in those Schools which are situated out of town there is, with the exception perhaps of Stanley, little support given to the efforts of tut to eas has indeed been rather small. Yet it is evident that the aim which was kept in view in Master by the villagers, who care far more for good Chinese teaching than for English. The inhabit. ants of Shaukiwán have been petitioning during the year 1887 for re-introduction of English teaching in their Vernacular School, but although another attempt in that direction has to be raade, it is alwa done in the villages at the imminent risk of spoiling a good Vernacular School by changing it into a badly attended Anglo-Chinese School, especially in places like Shaukiwán where several Chinese dialects are represented among the people.
14. Those Government Schools and Aided Schools which hitherto gave a Chinese education, pure and simple, exclusively in the Chinese language and according to Chinese national methods, enteri with the year 1887 upon a new phase of their existence, through the introduction of Arithmetic teaching, which is not only a striking departure from the groove of Chinese tradition but will prove the thin end of the edge for the introduction of class teaching, time table, mental training, and in short an approach to the methods and organization of a European School. For the present, the step taken in this direction is seemingly insignificant, and with one solitary exception the teachers of all the Schools, including even the Aided Schools in the Villages, took this step cheerfully. At the beginning of the year I supplied each Master with simple Addition and Multiplication Tables (in Chinese characters) and brief directions to teach all children under 10 years simple Addition whilst the rest were to be taught both Addition and Multiplication. But I left it free to each Master to choose whatever method he might prefer, to use the Chinese abacus, to have sums done in writing, or to teach simply mental Arithmetic, in any way he pleased. The results obtained at the end of the year might be called satis factory, had they not been gained, in almost all cases, at the expense of Geography teaching, which Not one Master taught was generally neglected in proportion as Arithmetic teaching was cultivated. the use of the Chinese abacus. This is very significant and points in the direction of introducing the European method of Arithmetic, if the Masters can be led into it without driving. One Master boldly took }}} the European system of notation and taught, beside Mental Arithmetic, also Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication with the use of the black board and little wooden tablets (in the place of slates), making Another Master, his children work out every sum in writing according to the European method. resolved to use no foreign method whatever, but determined to teach Arithmetic strictly according to ancient Chinese models. So he took an old Chinese book, published some four centuries ago under the Ming dynasty, and actually taught his boys the four rules, and, in the case of the eldest class, he taught even the extraction of square root and cube root, with Chinese figures indeed but with the minutest adherence to the European method. In doing so, the Master gloried all the time in the notion that he was following exclusively Chinese principles, for he was blissfully unaware that his old Chinese book was the work of a Chinese pupil of MATTHEW RICCI. The next step that may be taken will be to supply each teacher with a simple manual for his guidance in teaching the four rules according to the European system of Arithmetic, and to do the same for the teaching of Chinese Geography.
15. As regards the Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class I, that is, Schools which give a Chinese educa tion exclusively in the Chinese language, I subjoin a comparative Table exhibiting the results of the The aim of that revision working of the Revised Scheme (of 1883) which came into operation in 1884.
was to increase the pensum of work to be done under the several Standards, to reduce the earning power of these comparatively in-expensive Schools and, finally, to encourage the teachers to bring more children under instruction in the higher Standards without skipping the lower ones.
TABLE shewing the EFFECTS of REVISION of SCHEME (1883) on SCHOOLS in Class I.
Number of Scholars examined in Schools
$
in Class I.
Amount carned by Passes (apart from Cupitation Grant and Needle-work).
Standards.
1884.
1885.
1886.
1897.
1884.
1885.
1886.
1887.
$
1.,
76
128
271
872
146
160
462
654
II.,
657
789
652
639
3,124
3,052
2,496
2,464
III.
470
446
474
487
3,208
2,196
2,184
2,100
IV.,
120
128
138
153
840
624
640
856
V.,
26
26
44
32
230
210
320
250
VI..
2
9
11
13
24
108
120
108
1,251
1,476
1,590
1,696
$7,572
$6.350
$6,222
$6,432
16. It will be seen from the above Tables that the amounts carned by these Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class I has increased from year to year but the rate of increase has been far below the natural increase of the number of children in attendance. It will further be observed that there has been from year an increase in the number of children annually brought forward into the higher Standards.
revising the Scheme in 1883 has been fairly attained. There is, however, another point in connection Oh the above Table that requires comment. It appears from the above figures, on taking an average of the last four years, that from 1884 to 1887 the average number of scholars annually examined in the successive Standards of the Schools in Class I was as follows :-Standard I, 211 scholars; Standard II, 617; Standard III, 469; Standard IV, 135; Standard V, 32; and Standard VI, 9. At first glance, these figures appear to indicate that the children attending these Schools generally remain under instruction only some 3 or 4 years, that few stay in school 5 years, and that a very small proportion of children complete their course of education by reaching Standard VI. Now it is true indeed that, as a general rule, very few children and especially very few girls are left long enough in these purely Chinese Schools to finish their education there. But that does not prove that none of them continue their education in a higher Class of Schools. Chinese girls indeed are not sent to English Schools, and so far as they are concerned the above figures undoubtedly prove that Chinese girls are, as a rule, renoved from school before they reach the highest Standards. But the above figures must also be read in the light of the fact that the vast majority of boys attending these Chinese Schools in Class I, pass on, after reaching Standard III or IV, into the Government Central School or into other English or Anglo-Chinese Schools (in Class IV of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme) to learn English there, whilst continuing, privately or in those Anglo-Chinese Schools, to keep up that Chinese knowledge obtained by them in the lower Standards of those Primary Chinese Schools in Class I. In other words, the above figures, whilst in- dicating a defect in the education of Chinese girls, slew also, in the case of boys, that those Primary Chinese Schools in Class I act as the natural feeders of our Middle Class Schools, so far as the Chinese population is concerned, and that in their case a sound knowledge of the vernacular is now generally made the preliminary stepping stone for reaching a sound English education. The same important principle has been recognized also, as I have shown in former Reports, by the Portuguese community in this Colony. It is a principle which is now in India persistently urged upon educationists, since it has been generally recognized that the preservation of the vernacular in all Classes of Schools is required in order that the rucntal progress of the scholar may be reflected in his increased power to make use of his own language.
17. The Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class III (Basel and Berlin Missions) continue to show good results. In these Schools, which give a European education (to Chinese Girls) in the Chinese language, a laudable tendency has of late set in, to confine the use of the Romanized system of writing Chinese within reasonable limits and to teach in the higher Standards as much as possible of the written Chinese character. Evidence of the beneficial effect of this movement presented itself in a marked manner at the examinations held at the end of the year 1887. Formerly showy results in Chinese composition and letter writing were obtained, in the Romanized character, in these Schools, but, through comparative neglect of the use of the written Chinese character, children who passed successfully Standard VI were generally At the last left unable to read or write an ordinary Chinese letter or simple bill for goods bought or sold. examinations I noticed in this respect a great change for the better. The Chinese girls in these Schools are, for instance, still taught to write in good colloquial prose (Romanized) answers to searching questions in the bistory of Babylonia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, but they are now also gaining profi- ciency in writing simple prose or ordinary letters in the common Chinese character. It is to be regretted that the history teaching of these Schools excludes at present, for want of a suitable manual, the history of China. But as besides History, also Arithmetic (as far as decimal fractions) and Geography are added in these Schools to the ordinary subjects of an elementary Chinese education, it must be admitted that the wide range of education given in these Schools is eminently satisfactory, and does credit to the Basel and Berlin Missions.
18. The Graut-in-Aid Schools in Class IV have made extraordinary progress in the year 1887. I referred in the previous year's Report to the stimulus which had been given to the educational move- ment in this Colony by the introduction (at the instance of Mr. C. J. BATEMAN, Headmaster of the Hongkong Public School) of the system of non-gremial examinations conducted by the Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. I expected this measure to exercise, in time, a great and healthful in- fluence towards raising the standard of English education in the Colony. I apprehended also certain draw-backs, temptations and dangers to attach themselves to this as to every other strong stimulative measure. Surveying now the educational work of the year 1887, I certainly see, even at present, some of the draw-backs I referred to, but the suddenness and the extent of the healthful impulse which the introduction of the Cambridge Local Examinations gave, in the year 1887, to the study of the higher branches of an English education, has surpassed all my expectations. There was hitherto only one School, the Diocesan Home and Orphanage, which, during the last 5 years, anunally took up three of the special subjects of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, viz., Algebra, Euclid, and Physical Geography. Bat in 1887, suddenly 5 other Schools, St. Joseph's College, the two Victoria English Schools (including even a Girl's School), St. Paul's College (Anglo-Chinese School) and the Hongkong Public School,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.