Sessional_Paper_1887-1888 — Page 147

No.

8

88.

HONGKONG.

THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1887.

Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of

His Excellency the Governor.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, HONGKONG, 23rd March, 1883.

SIR, I have the honour to forward herewith the Annual Report on Education for the year 1887. 2. The total number of Schools, subject to supervision and examination by the Government, amounted, in the year 1887, to 94, as compared with 45 Schools in 1877 and 13 Schools in 1867. The total number of scholars, enrolled in Schools subject to Government supervision and examination, amounted to 5,974 in the year 1887, as compared with 3,144 scholars in the year 1877, and 700 scholars in the year 1867. In other words, there has been an increase of 49 Schools and 2,830 scholars during the last ten years, whilst the increase during the previous decade (1867-1877) amounted to 32 Schools with 2,736 scholars.

3. It is evident from the foregoing figures that the number of Schools and scholars under Govern- ment supervision and examination exhibits a considerable increase from decade to decade. This in- crease has, however, been running in the wake of a comparatively greater increase of the population of the Colony. The rate of annual increase has been unsteady in the case of Schools and scholars. In last year's Report I shewed that up to the year 1884 there was, year by year, a continuous annual increase amounting, on an average, to 6 Schools and 472 scholars per annum, but that, owing to certain disturbing elements, the previous annual increase of Schools and scholars remained checked from autumn 1884 to the beginning of the year 1887. But in the latter year there has now again been an increase of 4 Schools and 130 scholars under Government supervision and examination. Although this increase is not yet equal to the former annual rate, it may be taken as an indication that the current of educational development will soon recover its former strength.

4. Of the above mentioned 5,974 scholars attending Schools under Government supervision in the year 1887, as many as 4,160 were placed by their parents in Missionary Grant-in-Aid Schools where they received a Christian education, whilst 1,814 children attended the Government Schools. Of the latter number 601 scholars attended the Government Central School, 868 scholars attended Schools established by the Government in town and villages, and 345 scholars were under instruction in the small Village Schools kept by the natives and aided by the Government (by a fixed monthly grant of $5 each). Comparing these figures with those of the preceding year, it appears that there has been but a slight increase, amounting to 209 scholars, in the attendance of the Missionary Grant-in-Aid Schools, and a slight decrease, amounting to 79 scholars, in the attendance of the Government Schools. For further details see Tables I and II appended to this Report.

5. The expenses incurred by the Government, during the year 1887, on account of education in general, anounted (including the expenses connected with the Government Scholarship) to a total of $43,070.91 (as compared with $43,085.50 in the year 1886), or $7.21 per scholar (as compared with $7.37 per

scholar in 1886). These expenses were distributed as follows. The Government Central School, with 601 scholars, cost the Government, in the year 1887, $11,872.70 or $19.75 per head. The expenses of the other Government Schools (including the Government Aided Schools in the villages), attended by 1,814 scholars, amounted to $9,443.43 or $5.20 per head. On the Grant-in-Aid Schools, with 4,160 scholars, the Government has spent, for the year 1887, the sum of $16,674.72 or $4 per head. Further details concerning the cost, to the Government, of each School, will be found in Tables III, IV and XIII.

6. As to the nature of the education given in the above mentioned 94 Schools under Government supervision and examination, we may divide these Schools into 5 classes, viz. Chinese Schools, Roma- nized Chinese Schools, Portuguese Schools, Anglo-Chinese Schools, and English Schools. The first and by far the largest of these classes of Schools consisted in the year 1887 of 75 Schools (with 3,802 scholars) giving a purely Chinese education, exclusively in the Chinese language, that is to say either in the Punti or Hakka or Hoklò dialects. The second class consisted of 2 Schools (with 98 scholars) giving a European education in the Chinese language, using both the Chinese written character and teaching also to read and write Chinese according to the Romanized system. The third class consisted of 3 Portuguese Schools (with 224 scholars) giving a European education exclusively in the Portuguese