Sessional_Paper_1890 — Page 279

HONGKONG.

275

No. 14

90.

THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1889.

Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.

No. 63.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,

HONGKONG, 27th May, 1890.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward to you the Annual Report on Education for the year 1889. 2. GENERAL EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.-The total number of Educational Institutions of all descriptions, known to have been at work in the Colony of Hongkong during the year 1889, amounts to 211 Schools with a grand total of 9,681 scholars under instruction during the year. More than three-fourths of the whole number of scholars, that is to say 7,659 scholars, attended Schools (106 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 2,022 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. GENERAL STATISTICS OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.-Apart from the Police School, with 477 scholars and the Roman Catholic Reformatory with 75 scholars, both of which Schools are exempt from the control of the Education Department, the total number of Schools subject to direct supervision and annual examination by the Inspector of Schools, amounted, in the year 1889, to 104, as compared with 50 in 1879, and 19 in 1869. The total number of scholars, enrolled in this same class of Schools during the year 1889, amounted to 7,107 as compared with 3,460 scholars in the year 1879 and 942 scholars in the year 1869. In other words, there has been an increase of 31 Schools and 2,518 scholars during the ten years from 1869 to 1879, and an increase of 34 Schools and 3,647 scholars during the ten years from 1879 to 1889. This increase is satisfactory on the face of it, but the rate of increase, like all educational statistics, can be valued only by comparison with the statistics of population: Unfortunately we have no population statistics of equal accuracy, but approximately estimating the annual increase of population, we may say the population of the Colony amounted in 1869 to about 120,000 people, in 1879 to about 155,000 and in 1889 to about 220,000 people, thus shewing an increase of about 34,000 people, to be compared with an increase of 31 Schools and 2,518 scholars, during the first decade, and an increase of about 65,000 people, to be compared with an increase, of 54 Schools and 3,647 scholars during the second decade. It would seem therefore that the decennial increase of Schools and scholars during the last twenty years has, though somewhat lagging behind, shewn a tendency to keep up with the progressive increase of population, and is, on the whole, satisfactory.

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4. PROGRESS DURING THE LAST THREE YEARS.-Comparing the statistics of individual years, I find the number of Schools under supervision and examination by the Inspector of Schools rose from 94 Schools in 1887, and 97 Schools in 1888, to 104 Schools in 1889, whilst the number of scholars under instruction in these same Schools rose from 5,974 scholars in 1887, and 6,258 scholars in 1888. to 7,107 scholars in 1889. There is therefore clearly a steady annual increase observable during the last three years, progressing from an increase of 284 scholars in 1888 to an increase of $49 scholars in

1889.

5. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS.-The Schools under the general supervision of the Education Department may be divided into Government Schools and Voluntary Schools. Under the term Government Schools are included all the Schools established by the Government in the town and villages independently or in concert with village communities and supported by the Government by means of fixed monthly payments independent of any results ascertained by examination. Under the term Voluntary Schools I include all those Public Schools under private management, which have been voluntarily placed by their Managers under the provisions of the Grant-in-Aid Code and consequently under general supervision and examination by the Inspector of Schools and which, whilst providing their own expenses, receive from the Government an annual Grant-in-Aid, the amount of which depends, in the case of each School, on the definitive results ascertained at the annual examination of each individual scholar. These two classes of Schools are further characterized by the fact that the Government Schools, as afore defined, are virtually secular Schools, whilst the afore mentioned Voluntary Schools are all Christian Schools (Protestant or Roman Catholic). Referring now to the 7,107 scholars who, as above mentioned, attended, during the year 1889, Schools under the supervision of the Education Department, there were as many as 4,814 of these scholars attending Voluntary Schools where they received a Christian education, whilst 2,293 scholars attended Government Schools, receiving a secular education. The secular