Sessional_Paper_1889 — Page 103

101

No.

3

89.

HONGKONG.

THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1888.

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

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, HONGKONG, 11th February, 1889.

SIR, I have the honour to present herewith the Annual Report on Education for the year 1888. 2. The total number of Educational Institutions of all descriptions, known to have been at work in the Colony of Hongkong during the year 1888, amounts to 206 Schools with a grand total of 8,717 scholars. More than three-fourths of the whole number of scholars, that is to say 6,728 scholars attended Schools (99 in number) subject to Government supervision and either established or aided by the Government in some form or other. The remainder, viz. 107 Schools with 1,989 scholars, are Private Institutions entirely independent of Government supervision and receiving no aid from public funds, unless it be that they are exempt from payment of rates and taxes.

3. Apart from the Police School with 369 scholars (viz. 17 Europeans, 163 Chinese and 189 Indians in irregular attendance) and the West-Point Reformatory, with 75 Chinese and 26 Portuguese scholars, both of which schools are exempt from the control of the Education Department, the total number of Schools, subject to supervision and annual examination by the Government, amounted, in the year 1888, to 97, as compared with 47 in the year 1878, and 16 in the year 1868. The total number of scholars enrolled in this same class of Schools during the year 1888, amounted to 6,258 scholars, as compared with 3,152 scholars in the year 1878, and 915 scholars in the year 1868. These comparisons appear to exhibit a satisfactory increase of Schools and scholars from decade to decade.

4. Applying the same comparison to the last three years, I find the number of Schools under the supervision and examination of the Education Department to have risen from 90 Schools in 1886, to 94 Schools in 1887, and to 97 Schools in 1888, whilst the number of scholars enrolled, in these same Schools, rose from 5,844 in 1886, to 5,974 in 1887, and to 6,258 in 1888. The steady annual increase thus observable during the last three years and progressing from an increase of merely 10 scholars in 1886. to an increase of 130 scholars in 1887, and to an increase of 284 scholars in 1888, is nothing to boast of, because it is in all probability but a poor comparison with a proportionately much greater annual increase of the population, but still it is satisfactory in view of the decrease which occurred in 1885 and confirms the opinion I expressed in my last Annual Report that the current of educational development is beginning to recover its normal strength, which it had lost in consequence of the local disturbances connected with the Franco-Chinese war in 1884.

5. Referring to the 6,258 scholars who, as above mentioned, attended Schools under the super- vision of the Education Department, there were as many as 4,325 of these scholars attending Mission- ary Grant-in-Aid Schools where they received a Christian education, viz. 3,407 scholars in Protestant Schools and 918 scholars in Roman Catholic Schools. The Government Schools in the Colony were attended by 1,933 scholars, of whom 634 scholars received their instruction in the Government Central School, 932 scholars in the Government Schools in town and villages, and 367 scholars in the small Village Schools (organized by the natives and aided by the Government by a fixed monthly grant). Comparing the foregoing figures with those of the preceding year, it appears that there has been a slight increase of attendance amounting to 165 scholars in the case of the Grant-in-Aid Schools and to 119 scholars in the case of the Government Schools.

6. The expenses incurred by the Government during the year 1888, on account of education in general, amounted (including the expenses connected with the Government Scholarship, but excluding cost of new buildings) to a total of $45,518.93 (as compared with $43,070.91 in the year 1887) or $7.27 per scholar (as compared with $7.21 per scholar in 1887). These expenses were distributed as follows. The Government Central School, with 634 scholars, cost the Government in the year 1888 (exclusive of building expenses) $12.384.14 or $19.53 per head. The expenses of the other Govern- ment Schools (including the Aided Village Schools), attended by 1,299 scholars, amounted in the year 1888 to $10,511.18, or $8.08 per scholar, that is to say $7.01 per scholar in the Government Schools and $4.19 per scholar in the Aided Schools. On the Missionary Grant-in-Aid Schools, with 4,325 scholars, the Government have spent, for the year 1888, the sum of $16,847.35 or $3.89 per scholar. A building grant of $300 given to the Basel Mission is also included in the general expenditure above mentioned. 7. The nature of the education given in the various Schools subject to supervision and examina- tion by the Education Department has not undergone any material change for many years past. Out of 97 Schools under Government in the year 1888, as many as 77 Schools, attended by 3,986 scholars (almost exclusively of Chinese parentage), gave a Chinese education, in the Chinese language, using either the Punti or Hakka dialect. Two Schools, attended by 110 scholars, gave a European educa- tion in the Chinese language, one using the Hakka and the other the, Punti dialect, and both com- bining the use of Chinese and of Romanized characters in reading and writing. There were further 3 Portuguese Schools, attended by 211 scholars of Portuguese parentage, who receive there a European education exclusively in the local variation of the Portuguese language, learning neither English nor