Sessional_Paper_1887-1888 — Page 152

13. The Anglo-Chinese Schools of the Government, located at Saiyingp'ún, Wántsai, Wong- naich'ung, Stanley and Yatimáti do not call for special remarks this year. The examinations of these Schools shewed fair results, which is the more to be appreciated as in those Schools which are situated out of town there is, with the exception perhaps of Stanley, little support given to the efforts of the Master by the villagers, who care far more for good Chinese teaching than for English. The inhabit- ants of Shaukiwán have been petitioning during the year 1887 for re-introduction of English teaching in their Vernacular School, but although another attempt in that direction has to be made, it is always done in the villages at the imminent risk of spoiling a good Vernacular School by changing it into a badly attended Anglo-Chinese School, especially in places like Shaukiwán where several Chinese dialects are represented among the people.

14. Those Government Schools and Aided Schools which hitherto gave a Chinese education, pure and simple, exclusively in the Chinese language and according to Chinese national methods, entered with the year 1887 upon a new phase of their existence, through the introduction of Arithmetic teaching, which is not only a striking departure from the groove of Chinese tradition but will prove the thin end of the edge for the introduction of class teaching, time table, mental training, and in short an approach to the methods and organization of a European School. For the present, the step taken in this direction is seemingly insignificant, and with one solitary exception the teachers of all the Schools, including even the Aided Schools in the Villages, took this step cheerfully. At the beginning of the year I supplied each Master with simple Addition and Multiplication Tables (in Chinese characters) and brief directions to teach all children under 10 years simple Addition whilst the rest were to be taught both Addition and Multiplication. But I left it free to cach Master to choose whatever method he might prefer, to use the Chinese abacus, to have sums done in writing, or to teach simply mental Arithmetic, in any way he pleased. The results obtained at the end of the year might be called satis- factory, had they not been gained, in almost all cases, at the expense of Geography teaching, which was generally neglected in proportion as Arithmetic teaching was cultivated. Not one Master taught the use of the Chinese abacus. This is very significant and points in the direction of introducing the European method of Arithmetic, if the Masters can be led into it without driving. One Master boldly took up the European system of notation and taught, beside Mental Arithmetic, also Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication with the use of the black board and little wooden tablets (in the place of slates), making his children work out every sum in writing according to the European method. Another Master, resolved to use no foreign method whatever, but determined to teach Arithmetic strictly according to ancient Chinese models. So he took an old Chinese book, published some four centuries ago under the Ming dynasty, and actually taught his boys the four rules, and, in the case of the eldest class, he taught even the extraction of square root and cube root, with Chinese figures indeed but with the minutest adherence. to the European method. In doing so, the Master gloried all the time in the notion that he was following exclusively Chinese principles, for he was blissfully unaware that his old Chinese book was the work of a Chinese pupil of MATTHEW RICCI. The next step that may be taken will be to supply each teacher with a simple manual for his guidance in teaching the four rules according to the European system of Arithmetic, and to do the same for the teaching of Chinese Geography.

15. As regards the Grant-in-Aid Schools in Class I, that is, Schools which give a Chinese educa- tion exclusively in the Chinese language, I subjoin a comparative Table exhibiting the results of the working of the Revised Scheme (of 1883) which came into operation in 1884. The aim of that revision was to increase the pensum of work to be done under the several Standards, to reduce the earning power of these comparatively in-expensive Schools and, finally, to encourage the teachers to bring more children under instruction in the higher Standards without skipping the lower ones.

TABLE shewing the EFFECTS of REVISION of SCHEME (1883) on SCHOOLS in CLASS I.

Number of Scholars examined in Schools

Amount earned by Passes (apart from Capitation Grant and Needle-work).

in Class I.

Standards.

1884.

1885.

1886.

1887.

1884.

1885.

1886.

1887.

$

$

ន

$

1.,

76

128

271

372

146

160

462

654

II.,

557

739

652

639

3,124

3,052

2,496

2,464

III.,.

470

446

474

487

3,208

2,196

2,184

2,100 -

IV.,

120

128

138

153

840

62-1

640

856.

26

26

44

32

230

210

320

250

VI.,.

N

11

13

24

108

120

108

1,251

1,476

1,590

1,696

$7,572

$6,350

$6,222

$6,432