Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 372

HONGKONG.

THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1895,

:

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

EDUCATION Department,

369

No. 23

96

HONGKONG, 21st May, 1896.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward to you the Annual Report on Education for the year 1895.

ነ

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 1895 amounts to 236 Schools with an enrolment of 10,721 sebolars. Three-fourths of these, viz., 8,156 scholars attended 123 Schools under Government, the remaining one-fourth, viz., 2,720 scholars, attended 113 Schools entirely independent of Government. As to the Schools under Government, the vast majority, viz., 106 Schools with 5,684 scholars are Voluntary Schools aided and supervised by Govern- ment under the Grant-in-Aid Code, whilst the remainder, viz., 17 Schools with 2,472 scholars, are Government Schools established and maintained by the Government. Among the remaining Schools there are 107 Kai-fong Schools with 2,200 scholars, established and maintained by the Chinese com- munity without reference to, or aid from, the Government, and 6 private Schools under European management and equally independent of Government.

3. DECENNIAL STATISTICS OF Schools under THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.-The total number of Schools subject to supervision and examination on the part of the Education Department (exclusive of Queen's College and Police School) amounted in the year 1895 to 121 Schools as compared with 90 Schools in the year 1885 and 39 Schools in the year 1875. The total number of scholars enrolled in this same class of Schools during the year 1895 amounted to 6,792 scholars as compared with 5,833 scholars in the year 1885 and 2,606 scholars in the year 1875. During the decade from 1875 to 1885, there was an increase of 51 Schools with 3,227 scholars, but during the last decade (1885 to 1895) the increase amounted only to 31 Schools with 957 scholars.

4. TRIENNIAL STATISTICS OF SCHOOLS under the Education DepaRTMENT.-In the year 1893 there were (exclusive of Queen's College and Police School) 125 Schools with 7,594 scholars under the supervision of the Department. In the year 1894 (the year of the plague) the number was reduced to 118 Schools with 7,246 scholars, and in 1895 the number of scholars was still further reduced to 6,792 scholars in 121 Schools. The sole cause of this decline is a continued exodus of Chinese families, caused first by fear of the plague and subsequently through reluctance to submit to the house to house visitations of European sanitary officers.

5. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS AND GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS UNDER THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.-The above mentioned 121 Schools (with 6,792 scholars), under the super- vision of the Education Department during the year 1895, may be roughly divided into 15 Govern- ment Schools (wholly maintained and controlled by the Government) with 1,108 scholars, and 106 Mission Schools (subsidized by the Government on the basis of the Grant-in-Aid Code) with 5,684 scholars. The Government Schools, while abstaining from religious teaching in the Christian sense of the word, provide (in the case of Chinese Schools) the moral-religious teaching of Confucianism because it is inseparable from the teaching of the Chinese classical language, and (in the case of Anglo-Chinese Schools) add English teaching such as is given in Board Schools in England. The Mission Schools, whilst giving a religious and distinctly Christian education, are inspected and examined by the Government and receive annual grants, without any reference to specifically religious teaching, simply on the basis of the detailed results exhibited by the examination of every individual scholar in the subjects required under the respective standards fixed by the Code of Regulations for Educational Grants-in-Aid. Strictly speaking, therefore, none of the Schools under the supervision of the Government are absolutely secular Schools, though the Government Schools may be said to be non-Christian Schools, nor does the Government make any payment or give any grant directly in support of religious teaching. The Hongkong Code has neither a secular nor a religious bearing, but, as it only fixes the subjects for examination and leaves the choice of books and selection of teachers and methods of teaching absolutely unfettered, and as the Government is prepared to subsidize Schools (which fulfil the conditions of the Code) established by the adherents of any religion whatsoever represented in the Colony, the Code has, since the year 1879, when its exclusively secular provisions were abolished, satisfactorily reconciled all the conflicting educational and religious interests of a com munity which represents a greater variety of nationalities and religions than any other part of Her Majesty's possessions.