1900 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, OCT. 26, 1906.
18. A few boys in Class V read very well indeed, and the average was fair. Questions on the meanings of words elicited ready answers, but the boys were disinclined to speak out. VA read rather better than the other Divisions. The Master of V C is not a good English scholar his grammar is faulty.
19. Of Class IV, Division C appeared to possess a somewhat limited vocabulary; and the answering was confined to a few boys. On the other hand, the teacher gave without preparation a reading lesson that was quite good.
20. The reading in III A and B was good and fluent, and the boys exhibited no disin- clination to reply, when questioned. IIIC did not do so well, the answering being slow and uncertain.
21. In both Divisions of Class II the reading was not so good as in the lower Classes.
22. Reading was very fair in Class I, and the boys were well acquainted with the meaning of words, prefixes and affixes, and readily answered questions put to them. But in 3, the boys were less inclined to exert themselves.
23. Composition.-A somewhat severe test was given to Class VI, Divisions A to D, as we wished to see exactly what the ex-Pupil Teachers of last year have made of their pupils when left to their own devices. A short story was read out twice, and was then written out from memory. This exercise has not been given below Class V hitherto. As in Colloquial, Division I was here also much the weakest, and C again was far the best. No paper in the latter was marked lower than 40 per cent., and two-thirds were considered to be over 65 per cent. The time during which the writers of these papers have been studying English has been one year at the College, and 15 years at outside schools, which figures correspond closely with the theoretic demand of their position in the College.
24. Class V were required to write a short letter on a simple subject. They had evidently been practised in doing so. Division D did fairly, C and B were good, and A earned the highly satisfactory mark of very good,
25. Class IV A was marked as good, and the other Divisions as fair. Much of the work was untidy; margins should always be used. In some cases the handwriting was
Full stops were frequently used for commas in B.
poor.
26. Class III, the lowest in the Upper School, was marked more severely than has hitherto been done. This at any rate partly accounts for the fact that the average mark given to the three Divisions is only 54 per cent. as compared with 68 per cent. last year. It is however not too much to expect that the grosser forms of grammatical mistakes should not be held venial in boys of the Upper School, who have been devoting hours daily to English for 5 or 6 years. Division A was much the strongest of the three.
27. Class II A did considerably better than last year, and their work must on the whole be considered fair, although there is a lamentable falling off at the bottom of the Division. Division B did very badly. More than half the pupils obtained no marks. On analysing the paper, taken at random, of one of these failures, we find that in 150' words 3 common ones are mis-spelled; there are 4 sentences which are quite unintelligible, and 4 gross grammatical blunders,
28. Class I A did fairly: a much higher mark would certainly have been earned, but for the unavoidable absence of many of the senior boys. On the whole the work shewn up is correct and idiomatic, and shews that the writers have a good vocabulary and a consider- able acquaintance with the language. The best papers of 1 B were also good; but here again more than half the Division failed to obtain any marks.
29. Outsiders can not be expected to appreciate the distinction between one Division and another. What then will they think, if having engaged a young man who has been a year in the top Class of the senior school of the Colony, they find that he makes in half a page of English such mistakes as these:-"To govered.........is charge with some guilty .....and no allowed.........there is no so many thief.. ..........every people wants to stay in this colony and don't mind their own country.............." ?
30. It was observed that the blackboard was used by few of the Chinese masters during the reading lessons. A judicious scheme of word-building, especially in the Lower School, would considerably improve the spelling; and ten minutes during each lesson could with advantage he devoted to this subject.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.