Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 471

GRANT SCHOOLS.

10. These schools, like the District Schools, have not been designed to fill a part of any definite system of education, but are the results of various and disconnected efforts extending over nearly sixty years. For convenience of description they may be divided into three classes, though such a classification must not be consi- dered accurate in detail. It is at any rate more accurate than that which is given in the Grant-in-Aid Code, and which is therefore ignored throughout this Report.

11. These classes are:-

I.—Schools giving an Education in English or Portuguese to Scholars of all Nationalities, hereinafter called ENGLISH GRANT SCHOOLS.

These include most of the old establishments of the Colony. The Diocesan School and Orphanage is a boarding and day school for boys (Europeans, Chinese and Eurasians, the Chinese being in the majority) to whom a primary education in English is given. The Diocesan School for Girls, originally founded for Europeans and Eurasians, is a school of the same class, only Chinese are not admitted. St. Joseph's College is a large Roman Catholic School for boarders and day boys. The boys are mainly Portuguese, Filipinos and Chinese, and the education is very similar to that given in the Diocesan School. Besides the Diocesan, the chief Girl Schools are the Italian Convent, where a similar education is given, principally to Portuguese, Eurasians, and Chinese orphans, many of whom are boarders, and the French Convent, managed on very similar lines. There are also four schools in which an elementary education is given in the Portuguese language.

Lastly, the Church Missionary Society has a small school giving an English education to Chinese girls.

Various as they are, these schools all unite in one common principle-they are Christian schools. Non-Christian Chinese may and do attend them, but with- out affecting the distinctive religious tone. They are genuine Grant-in-Aid Schools in the sense that the Grant is not the sole source of revenue. Fees are charged or remitted at the discretion of the Managers, guided by their judgment as to whe- ther individual cases are worthy objects of charity.

H.-Schools teaching the English Language and Western Knowledge to Chinese Boys, hereinafter called ANGLO-CHINESE GRANT SCHOOLS.

The most important of these is the Roman Catholic Cathedral School, taught by Lay Brothers with the assistance of Chinese masters.

The students are young men who have completed their Chinese education to their own satisfaction, and desire to learn English for business purposes. The school gives instruction up to the Fifth Standard.

None of the other schools go above the Fourth Standard, nor do they call for description in detail. In this connection it is noticeable that under the existing Grant-in-Aid Code no distinction is drawn between English infants learning to. 'read, and Chinese students beginning the study of English after their Vernacular education is complete. Hence it is a common thing for a young Chinaman of eighteen or twenty, his natural gift for memorising accentuated by a prolonged education in his own language, to present as his year's work 30 pages of a reading book in monosyllables concerning Ann and her Goat.

Fees of about one dollar a month are paid in these schools. Except in the Roman Catholic Cathedral School, the instruction is left entirely to the Chinese teachers. No written Chinese is taught.

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