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III.-Schools teaching the Chinese Written Language and Western Knowledge in the Vernacular to Chinese Scholars, hereinafter called VERNACULAR GRANT SCHOOLS.
These schools are without exception under the management of various Mis- sionary Bodies, none of the Private Vernacular Schools of the Colony caring to accept the Grant, As in the case of the Anglo-Chinese Grant Schools, the Verna- cular Grant Schools are left, with few exceptions, so far as secular instruction is concerned, to the charge of the Chinese teachers, who do not appear as a class to be sufficiently impressed with the necessity of maintaining their schools in disci- pline, cleanliness and order; while the children, provided as they are with a free education at the hands of the Government, remain to all appearances destitute of any conception of the obligations they are under. Any hopes the Government may have entertained of winning the goodwill of the rising generation through the establishment of these schools appear altogether unrealised.
The Girl Schools stand on a somewhat different footing. The teachers have been trained in Mission boarding schools and Convents; and the influence of their training is manifest in discipline order and cleanliness, while the supervision of the Managers is more regular and effective.
The Chinese Written Language is taught in the same unsatisfactory way as in the Vernacular District Schools described above, Arithmetic is an optional subject, and the four simple rules are taught with fair success. Geography is taught (very badly) in the Fourth Standard, where many of the Scholars were at the last examination ignorant that Hongkong was a British Colony: a number hazarded the opinion that it belonged to Russia. Most of them, as well as some of the teachers, seemed unaware that the Chinese expression meaning "red-headed as applied to Englishmen is resented by them. But this is not all the children from whom alone such knowledge was expected are a very small minority, as the following figures show. Out of 795 boys who obtained passes in the last examination, only 54 or 7 per cent. were in the higher Standards (Fourth or above). The proportion of girls was better, 146 out of 818, or 17 per cent. The percentage of boys and girls taken together was 12 per cent., and was the same for 1900 and for 1899.
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No fees are charged in the Vernacular Grant Schools.
:
There have always been a large number of Private Vernacular Schools main- tained by the Chinese themselves and quite independent of Government aid. The Vernacular Grant Schools have never been able to do more than hold their own against them, as the following table shews:-
SCHOLARS.
PERCENTAGE IN
Year.
Vernacular Vernacular! Grant Private Schools. Schools.
In Grant
Schools,
(Average
In Private Schools.
Total Scholars.
Grant Private Schools. Schools.
Attendance).
1897,
1898,
1899,
222
77
96
2,618
2,124
4,742
55 01
45% 10
75
100
2,800
2,257
4,557
50
50%
67
93
2,270
2,058
4,328
53%
47
1900,
61
94
2,194
2,179
4,373
50%
50%
1901,
57
95
1,926
2,457
4,383
44%
56%
Thus, if the sudden fluctuations are disregarded which are inherent in private schools as compared with those that receive State aid, the proportion of the total
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