Sessional_Paper_1898 — Page 355

HONGKONG.

351

No. 28

98

THE EDUCATIONAL REPORT FOR 1897.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency

the Officer Administering the Government.

No. 29.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,

HONGKONG, 25th May, 1898.

SIR.I have the honour to forward to you the Annual Report on the schools under my super- vision for the year 1897.

2. GENERAL EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.--The total number of Educational Institutions known to have been at work in the Colony during the past year is 224 with an enrolment of 11,177 pupils. This number includes the Police School where 344 police officers receive irregular instruction, and 111 schools with 2.827 pupils which are in no way connected with the Government; 103 being schools maintained by the Chinese community, and the rest, with one exception, being schools supported by Roman Catholic religious institutions. The remaining schools, 112 in number, are maintained by the Government or aided by it, and are all subject to Government supervision, and in them 7,929 scholars were under instruction. Compared with the year 1896 these figures are on the whole satisfactory, but to obtain a correct idea of the position it is necessary to go back as far as the year 1893, as the effects of the plague in 1894 and in 1896 are still felt in various localities. Com- pared then with that year the Government Schools, and in these I do not include the Police School which is of an exceptional character, show an increase of 121 scholars. This is more than accounted for by the large increase in the number of pupils in the schools where English is taught, and in the Chinese division of the Belilios Public School. The actual number of schools has decreased from 24 to 16. The Grant-in-Aid Schools have decreased in number from 102 to 96, and the number of scholars attending them is 708 short of what it was in 1893. This loss occurs principally in the three districts of Saiyingpun, Tai-ping-shan, and Sheungwan in Vict ria, where the number of schools has fallen from 41 to 29, and of scholars, from 2,784 to 1,900. The Kai-fong Schools in these districts also show a loss of 29 schools and 406 scholars, whilst in the villages of Hongkong 10 schools have been closed. The total figures for the Kai-fong Schools for the past year are 103 schools and 2,247 scholars, as compared with 144 schools and 2,596 scholars in 1893. There is thus room for a good deal of improvement before the position of education, so far as Chinese Schools are concerned, becoines as good as it was before the plague. Of the nationality of the scholars, it is impossible to speak with exactness, but I believe about 7,780 to be Chinese and 3,060 non-Chinese.

3. DECENNIAL STATISTICS OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE INSPECTORATE. The total number of schools subject to supervision and to examination by the Inspector of Schools last year was 111, and the number of scholars receiving instruction in them was 6.787. The corresponding figures for the years 1887 and 1877 are respectively 93 and 5,373, and 44 and 2,534. The large increase in the number of schools and scholars between the years 1877 and 1887 was due to the revision of the Grant-in-Aid Code in 1878.

4. TRIENNIAL STATISTICS.-As stated above, the number of scholars in schools subject to examination by the Inspector of Schools last year was 6,787. In 1896 it was 6,313, and in 1895, 6.792. There is therefore no progress to be reported.

5. SCHOOL FEES.-Elementary education in Hongkong is practically free. All the Government and Grant-in-Aid Schools which teach Chinese give a free education, and children of European. extraction whose parents can plead poverty are charged no fees for an English education in Govern- ment Schools. In the Grant-in-Aid Schools in which fees are charged for an English education the ordinary fee is very small, and even this is reduced where the parents of a scholar are not well-to-do.

6. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.--The average daily attendance was 4,567. This is considerably larger than it was in 1896, but is still 122 less than it was in 1895; the maximum monthly enrolment shows a slight improvement. The ratio of average daily attendance to enrolment is 76.93. In 1893 it was 78.19. In 1895 it was 76.95, and in 1896, 74.48.

7. LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.-In the subjoined table showing the distribution of the secular and religions schools the terms used have the same meaning as in previous reports. "Religious Schools" practically mean schools under the management of Christian religious societies. "Secular Schools" are schools managed by Chinese or by Europeans not connected with any religious society. "Government Schools" are schools conducted by the Government, whilst "Grant-in-Aid Schools" are managed by private bodies but are under the supervision of the Government and receive from it a grant which is assessed by an annual examination. "Kai-fong Schools" are public schools maintained by the Tung Wa Hospital and members of the Chinese