556 SUPPLEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOV" GAZETTE OF 19th JUNE, 1886.
failed were far below the former average of age. The effect of the Revision of the Scheme, so far as Standard I in Schools of Class I is concerned (reducing the value of a pass from $5 to $2) appears to me to have been a tendency, on the part of the teachers, to bring forward children at an abnormally early age for examination in Standard I and to place children who ought to be in Standard I at once under the teaching of Standard II. I am therefore inclined to recommend that, on a future revision of the Scheme, the value of a pass in Standard be raised from $2 to $3 and that copywriting be taken in this Standard (but not to be counted if the scholar has not passed in two of the other subjects). It will be observed, secondly, that the results of the year 1885, show, as far as all the higher Standards are concerned, that the aims of the Revision of the Scheme, both as regards a reduction of the earning power of these Schools in Class I and also as regards the needful increase of scholars to be brought forward in the higher Standards, have been secured to a certain extent in 1885 as well as in the preceding year. I am inclined to think it might be well, on a future further revision of the Scheme, to take copywriting in Standards V and VI, which would act as a further encouragement to teachers to bring forward more scholars in those highest Standards.
17. It will be seen from Table XI appended to this Report, that 4 of the Schools in Class I succeeded, even under the revised Scheme, in gaining a grant slightly exceeding the amount actually expended during the year. These are, however, Schools with exceptionally large attendance, particu- larly well placed and through European supervision managed at a cheap rate. I do not think that the value of passes in Schools of this Class admits of any further reduction without causing a serious check to the advance of education in the Colony. Nor is there, looking broadly at the proportion which the grants paid to the various Grant-in-Aid Schools for 1885 actually bear to the expenses incurred by those Schools during the same year, any reason to think that the grants are now dispropor- tionately high. The Grant-in-Aid Schools may be divided into cheap and expensive Schools. All the Schools in Class I which give simply a Chinese education are cheap Schools, cheap because the teaching staff consists of natives and because nearly all these Schools are located in Chinese houses the rent of which is comparatively low. All the Schools in Classes II, III and IV, giving a Chinese education with English in addition, or a European education in the Chinese language, or a European education in some European language (English or Portuguese), are expensive Schools because they require, either partly or wholly, a European staff and are nearly all located in European buildings affording superior accommodation. Now comparing the total of grants paid for 1885 to those cheap Schools with the total of their expenditure, I find that, in these Schools of Class I, as many as 1,938 boys and 1,123 girls were educated in 1885 at a cost (to the Managers) of $14,562.76 and that the Govern. ment paid for these Schools grants amounting in the aggregate to $8,898.31 or 61 per cent. of the actual expenditure; but, as one fourth of the grant is a personal bonus paid to the teacher, the Managers received from the Government only $6,673.74 or 45 per cent. of their expenses. And in the case of those expensive Schools in Classes II, III and IV, I find that in these Schools 517 boys and 463 girls were educated in 1885 at a cost (to the Managers) of $22,744.93 and that the Government paid, in grants, a total of $5,559.61 or 24 per cent., of which sum the Managers received only $4,169,71 or 18 per cent. of their expenses. It is evident, therefore, that the grants now paid are by no means too high in comparison with the actual expenditure of the Schools, but that, owing to the unavoidable difference in the cost of Schools in Class I and Schools in Classes II, III and IV, the former have the advantage. On the other hand, it must also be considered that the Managers of Schools in Class IV, and partly also in Class III, reimburse themselves to a small extent by the fees paid by the scholars, whilst the scholars of Schools in Class I pay no fees at all.
18. For the first time in the history of our Grant-in-Aid Scheme, a School was placed in the year 1885, experimentally, in Class II, giving a Chinese education with English in addition. I regret to say the experiment I. ed. But the failure was clearly due to the smallness of the demand for such an education existing in the particular neighbourhood of that School, and not to any defect or insufli- ciency of the respective portion of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme.
19. There are, and have all along been, only two Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class III (Schools in which a European education is given in the Chinese language). These Schools, viz., the Berlin Mission and Basel Mission Boarding Schools for Puuti and Ilakka girls, have done excellent work in 1885, and the complaints which I made in a foriner Report as regards certain defects in composition have evidently borne good fruit. On a future further revision of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, it might be advisable to assimilate the Geography subjects of Standards IV, V and VI of Schools in Class III with the corresponding subjects in the same Standards of Schools in Class I.
20. As regards the Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class IV (Schools which give a European education in a European language), there are this year but few subjects calling for special remarks. The Bridges Street Poor School, giving an Anglo-Portuguese education, deserves however special mention as it signally distinguished itself by scrupulous cleanliness and economic neatness visible in all direc- tions, as well as by its excellent organisation and method of instruction. This School is taught by Sisters of the Italian Convent who are properly trained and certificated teachers, having passed the examinations prescribed by the Italian Education Code. As regards St. Joseph's College, though it does not call for special remarks with respect to the results of the examination, I note here that it
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