Sessional_Paper_1887-1888 — Page 148

language and teaching neither English nor Chinese. The fourth class consisted of 8 Anglo-Chinese Schools (with 1,160 scholars) giving a European education in both the English and Chinese languages. The fifth class consisted of 6 Schools (with 688 scholars) giving a European education exclusively in the English language.

7. Ever since Schools were established in this Colony, a disproportionate amount of attention has been given to the education of boys as compared with girls. In the early times of the Colony there was good reason for that, for the Chinese community consisted during the first two decades of the Colony's existence almost exclusively of men. It is only since the last 20 or 25 years that the Chinese began on a gradually increasing scale to settle down here together with their families, and it is very probable that the census of 1881 will show that the Chinese population of the Colony will in the near future attain to an approximately normal proportion of males and females. I shewed in my Report for last year that, thanks to the successful working of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, there has been, ever since the year 1873, a steady increase from year to year, both in the number of Schools established in the Colony for the special purpose of promoting female education, and in the proportion of girls to boys under instruction in the various Schools of the Colony. Among 5,974 children attending Schools under the supervision and examination of the Government, there were 4,195 boys and 1,779 girls in the year 1887. This constitutes a slight increase as compared with the statistics of the preceding year.. But the gradual progress made in this direction becomes more striking if we compare tlie proportion of girls to boys during the last twenty years. In 1867, among 700 children then attending Schools under Government, the girls counted only 6.86 per cent. In 1877, in the case of 3,144 children attending such Schools, the percentage of girls had risen to 19.84 per cent. and in the year 1887 we had, among 5,974 children in School, girls to the number of 29.77 per cent. It is evident that female education in this Colony, although in a backward condition and requiring to be fostered in every legitimate way, has in it the elements of healthy progress.

8. Apart from the 94 Schools under Government supervision and examination, with their 5,974 scholars, there were, in the year 1887, about 110 Private Schools (including Night Schools) at work in the Colony, attended by about 2,300 children, so that the total number of scholars under instruction in Schools of all classes amounted to 8,272 scholars, distributed over 204 Schools. As the population of the Colony, apart from the Army and Navy, amounted, in the year 1887, to about 181,900 souls, it appears therefore that about 4.54 per cent of the whole resident population were under instruction in Schools, public or private, within the Colony. In European countries, where education is compulsory, the number of children actually attending School forms generally about 10 per cent. (more or less) of the population. Under the exceptional circumstances of this Colony and in the absence of any law compelling attendance at School, it would be unreasonable to expect an equally high percentage here. European families still continue to send their children to Europe for reasons of health or to complete their education, and Chinese families, although they have now to some extent taken to bringing up their children in the Colony, send them away to their ancestral homes on the neighbouring mainland at the slightest provocation, such as the outbreak of epidemic disease or the spread of vague rumours concerning expected disturbances. We have no accurate data to ascertain the number of children of local school-age (6-16 years) residing in the Colony in the year 1887. When the last census was taken (in 1881), the number of children of local school-age approximated 9.26 per cent. of the popula tion. Applying this proportion to the population of the year 1887, it would appear that the number of children of local school-age amounted in 1887 to 16,843. Deducting therefrom the number of children actually in School (8,274), it appears that the number of uneducated children in the Colony, in 1887, amounted to 8,569. In other words, a little under one half of the children of local school-age actually came under instruction in Hongkong during the year 1887. There is nothing abnormal in this discrepancy. Educational statistics of quite recent date show that in England and Wales some- what over one half, and in Ireland less than one half, of those children (5-13 years of age) who ought to attend School, actually come under instruction. There are in this Colony hardly any industries which employ great numbers of children. One Sugar-Refinery employs a small gang of children in packing cube sugar in tins, and public road-making gives here and there parents an opportunity to employ their children in breaking small stones (to be mixed with cement), but there is very little in- terference at present with school attendance arising from these sources. The employment of children. by their parents in carrying loads of soil or bricks to or from building sites has very much decreased during the last 10 years. The principal causes that interfere with school attendance in the Colony are domestic employment within the family, bond-servitude in the case of purchased servant girls, and fishing in the case of a few villages. The Government Schools (outside the Central School) and the Chinese Grant-in-Aid Schools offer, in every part of the Colony both in town and villages, an ordinary Chinese education absolutely free of charge. In the Aided Village Schools (also giving an ordinary Chinese education in the vernacular) a small charge is made by the village cominunities amounting, on an average, to 30 cash and 3 catties of rice (total value about 12 cents) a month for each child in actual attendance. There are moreover 5 Government Schools in different parts of the Colony which give an elementary English education (up to Standard IV) absolutely free of charge. It is only in the middle-class Schools of the Colony which give an English education (with or without Chinese in addition) and in Private Schools that fees are charged such as are beyond the means of the poor. Thanks to the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, the lowest classes of the Chinese population have the most liberal