SUPPLEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOV" GAZETTE OF 19TH JUNE, 1886. 555 supplied a healthy stimulus. As the smartest of the boys drafted from those outside Schools into the Central School occasionally rise to be Monitors and Pupilteachers, some of them will eventually be available as teachers in their own villages.
remunera:
14. The vernment Schools and Aided Schools which give an exclusively Chinese education call for no special remarks, with the exception of the matter of attendance, which has always been very irregular in these Schools because they are essentially Schools for the poor. In the villages of Shankiwán, Shekò, Stanley and Aberdeen, many of the children are periodically withdrawn from School during the fishing seasons for employment on board the fishing junks. In the village of Táit'amtuk the School was gradually emptied last year and had to be closed because the Water Works give so much loyment to the villagers of both sexes and of all ages, that the children who previously attended School are now employed in the lighter kinds of agricultural work. In Tanglungchau the employment of children in the sugar refinery interferes to a slight exton with the School attendance. But all over the Colony the children of the poor are, as everywhere in the world where attendance is not compulsory, largely withheld from school because they contribute in some way or other towards the support of the family. These circumstances, together with the fact that many Chinese girls, being purchased children, are at an early age employed as domestic servants, contribute to swell the number of uneducated children in the Colony, which I roughly estimate at 11,367, as will be seen from Table XVI appended to this Report.
15. As regards the results of the examinations of the Grant-in-Aid Schools, the first point of importance is, at present, the working of the Revised Scheme (of 1883) which came into operation in the year 1884. The changes introduced by this revision were intended, in the first instance, to reduce the earning power of those inexpensive Chinese Schools (in Class I) which give a purely Chinese education and which formerly earned abnormally high grants as compared with the grants earned by English Schools, and, in the second instance, to induce the Masters of those Chinese Schools (in Class 1) to bring forward a larger proportion of their scholars into the higher Standards (IV, V and VI) of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. It will be seen from my last year's Report that the working of the Revised Scheme appeared to show in its first year (1884) rather favourable results, for the aims which the Government had in view, in changing the conditions of the Scheme, were evidently realised to a great extent, as the earning power of those Schools in Class I was materially reduced (in some cases even 37 per cent.) and a considerable increase occurred in the number of children brought forward into two of the higher Standards (IV and V). I now subjoin a Comparative Table shewing the working of the Revised Scheme in 1884 and 1885 as compared with the results of the year 1883.
GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS IN CLASS I
TABLE showing Erreets of Revision of Seness which came into operation in 1884,
Number of Scholars Examined.
Amoumi earned by Passes, Capart from Capitation Grant and
Needlework),
Standards.
1883.
1581.
1885.
1888.
1881.
1885.
$
I.,
428
76
128
1,585
146
160
Il.,
607
557
823
3,501
3,124
3,052
III.,
305
470
416
2,065
2,208
2,196
IV.,
76
120
128
520
840
624
V.........
17
26
26
126
230
210*
VI,
5
9
50
24
108
Totals,
1,438
1,251*
1,560
$7,850
$6,572
$6,350
*This reduction was caused by lorat disturbances unconnected with the Revision of the Scheme.
16. It appears from the foregoing Table that the effects of the Revision of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, as exhibited by the results of the year 1885, are of the same nature as those noticed in my Report for the preceding year. It will be observed, in the first instance, that since the Revision of the Scheme took effect, fewer children were presented for examination in the lowest Standard (I) than in 1883. This is not a result to be deplored as the children, who under the old Scheme would have been examined in Standard I, were actually examined in a higher Standard (H). Of the 128 children examined in 1885 in Standard I, only 80 passed and 48 failed, and I noticed that most of those who .
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