Sessional_Paper_1894 — Page 193

HONGKONG.

THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1893.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor

189

No. 1

No. 28.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,

HONGKONG, 9th April, 1894.

SIR, I have the honour to forward to you the Annual Report on Education for the year 1893. 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 1893, amounts to 277 Schools with 12,123 scholars, constituting an increase, as compared with the returns of the preceding year, amounting to 48 Schools with 1,183 scholars. This increase is, however, largely due to improved registration of Schools not under Government supervision, and particularly of the Kaifong Schools, ie., Schools started by the Chinese community independent of Government aid and control. Since the appointment of a special School Attendance Officer, I am now able to keep a complete and accurate record of all those Schools whose existence and statistics were hitherto known to me only through the naturally incomplete und imperfect reports of the District Watchmen. No doubt the labours of this School Attendance Officer, who is daily perambulating town and villages, applying moral suasion to vagrant children and their parents and keeping a register of school attendance, has caused a certain increase of attendance. But the above mentioned increase in the number of Schools (and scholars) is principally due to the fact that hitherto many of the smaller Schools in town and villages, independent of Government supervision, had escaped registration. Of the 12,123 scholars under instruction in 277 local Schools in the year 1893, one half (6,250 scholars) attended our 102 Grant-in-Aid Schools, over one- fifth (2,596 scholars) attended 144 Kaifong Schools, nearly one fifth (2,356 scholars) attended 24 Govern- ment Schools, and the remainder (921 scholars) attended sundry unclassed, public or private, Schools which are under European supervision but exempt from the supervision of the Education Department.

3. STATISTICS of Schools under the Education DepartmENT.-The total number of Schools, subject to supervision and examination on the part of the Education Department, amounted in the year 1893 to 126, as compared with 87 in the year 1883 and 36 in the year 1873. The total number of scholars enrolled in this same class of Schools, during the year 1893, amounted to 8,606, as compared with 5,597 scholars in the year 1883 and 2,280 scholars enrolled in the year 1873. In other words, there has been an increase of 51 such Schools, with 3,317 scholars, during the ten years from 1873 to 1883, and a similar increase of 39 Schools with 3,009 scholars during the ten years from 1883 to 1893.

4. SCHOOLS UNDER THE Education DepartmENT. PROGREss during the LAST THREE YEARS. The number of Schools under the supervision of the Education Department rose, from 117 Schools in the year 1891, to 130 Schools in 1892, but was in the year 1893 reduced, by the closing of 11 badly attended Government Schools, to 126 Schools. Nevertheless, the number of scholars under instruction in these Schools rose, from 7,672 scholars in the year 1891, to 8,277 scholars in the year 1892, and to 8,606 scholars in the year 1893. There has been thus an annual increase of attendance observable, during the last three years, progressing from an increase of 502 scholars in the year 1891, to an increase of 605 scholars in the year 1892; but in the year 1893 the net increase amounted only to 329 scholars, owing to the fact that the normal increase of 595 scholars in the Grant-in-Aid Schools of the year 1893 was accompanied by an abnormal decrease of 356 scholars on the side of the Govern- ment Schools. This decrease was due to the above-mentioned closing of a number of Government Schools.

5. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF Government SchOOLS AND GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS.-Referring now, once more, to those 126 Schools with 8,606 scholars under the cognizance of the Education Department, there were, in the year 1893, as many as 6,250 scholars (nearly three fourths of the whole number) attending 102 Grant-in-Aid Schools where they received a Christian education, whilst 2,356 scholars (over one fourth) attended 24 Government Schools, receiving a secular education. The secular Government Schools are free schools with the exception of Queen's College and Girls' Central School, the fees of which (covering also cost of books and stationery) are considerably below the /average of fees charged in similar Voluntary Schools. All the religious Grant-in-Aid Schools offer Chinese instruction free of charge, but some of them require, for English instruction, school-fees ranging from one to three dollars a month, with extra charges for books and stationery. An absolu- tely free education is offered in English by 7 Grant-in-Aid Schools and 5 Government Schools, and in Chinese by 89 Grant-in-Aid Schools and 17 Government Schools. As to attendance, the secular