Sessional_Paper_1884-1885 — Page 244

241

No. 24.

HONGKONG.

Educational Reports for 1884.

Presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.

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(1.)

Report by the Inspector of Schools.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, HONGKONG, 25th February, 1885.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward herewith the Annual Report on Education, and the Blue Book Returns for the year 1884.

2. The total number of Schools, subject to supervision by the Government, amounted in the year 1884 to 90, as compared with 50 in 1879, and 39 in the year 1874. The total number of scholars enrolled, during the year 1884, in Schools subject to supervision and annual examination by the Government, amounted to 5,885, as compared with 3,460 enrolled in 1879, and 2,563 enrolled in the year 1874.

There are now 51 more Schools and 3,322 more scholars under Government supervision than there were ten years ago. It appears therefore that both the number of Schools under Govern- ment supervision in the Colony and the number of scholars attending such Schools have been doubled within the last ten years.

3. The number of children attending Schools in the Colony is steadily increasing from year to year in the Grant-in-Aid Schools. There is at present no increase of attendance observable in the Government Schools, but an annual decrease, because, in the case of the Anglo-Chinese Schools kept by the Government, all available space is already overcrowded, and, in the case of those Government Schools which give purely Chinese teaching, the teaching given in the Government Schools is less appreciated by the people than that given in the Grant-in-Aid Schools, where the bonus allowed to the teacher acts as a powerful stimulant upon the efficiency of the teaching. But when once the long- expected new Victoria College buildings are completed, and the Government Central School moved into them, the matter of attendance will resume its normal development so far as Anglo-Chinese Schools are concerned.

4. Of the above mentioned 5,885 children in Schools under Government supervision, as many as 3,907 children were placed by their parents in denominational Grant-in-Aid Schools where they receive a Christian education, whilst 1,978 attended the secular Government Schools. Of the latter, 558 attended the Government Central School, 975 attended other Government Schools in town and in the villages, and 445 attended the Aided Schools in the villages.

5. Comparing the number of scholars in town and in the villages with the population, it appears that out of a population of 106,398 people in town 4,616 children or 4.34 per cent. attended Schools under Government supervision, whilst in the villages, out of a population of 45,595 souls 1,269 children or 2.78 per cent. attended Schools under Government supervision. I estimate the number of children attending about 100 private Schools in town and villages, not under Government supervision, at 2,000, and therefore the total of children attending Schools of any description at 7,885. This is, perhaps, about one third of the children of school-going age living in the Colony, and about 5 per cent. of the whole population. It will be seen from Table XVI., that I estimate the number of uneducated children in the Colony at 12,115, but the estimate is not a reliable one, as there are not sufficient data to go upon. But we may safely assume that most of the children withheld from school are Chinese girls.

6. As regards the expenses incurred by the Government in 1884 in supporting Government Schools and Grant-in-Aid Schools, the following details may suffice. The Government Central School, which gives an Anglo-Chinese education and was attended last year by 558 boys (mostly Chinese), cost the Government last year $13,378.62. or $23.97 per head. Five other Government Schools, also giving an Anglo-Chinese education, and numbering 331 boys, cost the Government, in 1884, $1,900.07 or $5.74 per head. On twenty-nine other Government Schools, giving a purely Chinese education, and attended by 1,089 children, the Government spent, in 1884, $3,709.15 or $3.40 per head. The Government spent, thus, on 1875 children in 35 Government Schools, $18,987.84 or on an