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Enclosure 5.
QUEEN'S COLLEBY.
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7905
HONGKONG REC 13 APR 36)
17 February 189..
The Right Honourable
Jeph Chamberlain
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State
sir
For The Gelenies.
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I have the honour to address you on the subject of the resent Independent Examination of this college, by two gentlemen, appainted by the governing Body,
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In accordange with the Regulations, issued by His Excellency, with your predecessor's approval, I have criticised their Report pretesting against the manner in which their conclusions are at variance with the details of their own Tables; and I presume that a copy has been forwarded to you,
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I have further shown, that their questions, set in the Lever and Preparatory Scheels, evince a want of appreciation on their part of the standard to be expected. If it is.remembered that Class VIII corresponds to Standard I,Class VII te Standand II &o, I am eenfident that any Educational Authority would suppert my statement, that the papers are unduly long, and several of the questions quite out of place for the classes to which they were set. The facts of the case assume a more serious aspect,if it is net fergetten that the keys under examinatén are Chinese, and have, in the Lower School,been only pur- suing the study of Inglish for periods varying from three months three years at the eutside.
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3. Nis Excelleney has publicly stated that this fallare is due to my ambition, It is therefore incumbent upon me,having been appointed Head Master by Earl Kimberley in 1881, to satisfy myself that you, sir, are aware, that I emphatically deny that there has been any failure, except on the part of the Examiners, in met sufficiently acquainting. themselves with the necessary standarės. I provided them with a Schedule, carefully indicating the limits of the knowledge ei each #lass. At the beginning of the examination, I pointed out ate them twe er three deviations; but as I saw that a sentinianoe of this .seurse vould endanger the harmony of the examination, I desisted; though sub- sequently, nearly every paper,especially the length of the Dietation papers and the nature of the @eneral Intelligence Papeą provided Occasion for pretest. In several instances, special pains appear to have been taken to unnecessarily mystify boys.
Euglig, Class II.Q.10. "if the bisecters of the angles at the base of an isoscales triangle meet within the triangle....* Where #lse can they meet?
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Arithmstig. Class II.1. Class III,4, bays are told to reduce vulgar fractions to decimals, and then multiply er divide by a recur- ring decimal for which purpose it will be necessary to restore them to their original condition af vulgar fractions. Such expressions as "club together* "rounds of ammunition' are unsuited to any Chinese class, but Froblems are in England rightly forbidden to the two hettem standards, Classes VII and VIII,
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who have been
framar. The same determination te render answers impossible to boys is observable here. Examiners, who in their Report object beys' learning definitions, do not scruple to mak boys learning Grammar for a year(VI) *Is the ram in which you sit a noun?" M What Part of Speech is Adjective?" "What is the meaning of the word A. thing?"
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The total result of theExamination,74% passed, is se manifestly unsatisfactory, suggesting undue severity, that the Examiners skrink from alluding to it,dismissing it as one of the details,net wortky * regard. They say, that they allowed 40% instead of 50% as a pass in a subject, but they do not mention, that swing to their prokimitive- ly kigh standard,44 marks in any subject is a fair average of the highest marks obtained. I think, Sir, that I was not expressing myself te strongly, when I characterised this Prize Examination,held by these gentlemen, as a fiasce.
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