Sessional_Paper_1903 — Page 97

13

No. 1908

HONGKONG.

REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, FOR THE YEAR 1902.

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

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,

HONGKONG, 31st January, 1903.

SIR,I have the honour to forward to you my Report upon the Education Department for the year 1902.

STAFF.

Mr. JAMES, M.A., and Mrs. JAMES, Headmaster and Headmistress of the Kowloon School, arrived in the Colony in February.

Second Assistant Masters were appointed to the District Schools at Sai Ying Pun and Wan Tsai in March.

Mr. YOUNG HEE was appointed Master and Supervisor to the same schools in April.

Miss CALCUTT, was appointed Infant Schoolmistress at the Kowloon School in May.

The Reformatory being empty, Mr. CURWEN and Mr. BULLIN have been em- ployed in other Departments during the greater part of the year.

I was absent on leave from the middle of April till the end of November, the Rev. T. W. PEARCE kindly acting for me.

THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION.

The Report of the Committee on Education was published in April. It is still not entirely decided how far the recommendations contained therein are to be adopted.

DRAFT OF A NEW CODE.

During my absence on leave I endeavoured, at the request of the Government, to familiarise myself with the working of the English Code, and with that view I visited a number of representative Secondary and Board Schools. I also drafted a New Code, which is now in the hands of the Government.

INSPECTION.

During the last few weeks of the year, after my return, it was thought advisa- ble that I should confine myself to general inspection and not hold the Annual Examination of the Grant Schools. I have thus been enabled to report fully on the condition of the Government Schools. I also visited the principal Grant Schools, many of them with Miss E. P. HUGHES, from whom I obtained much valuable advice. Miss HUGHES, for many years Principal of the Cambridge Training College for Secondary Teachers, is just returning from a year's visit to Japan, where she was sent to make a special report for the Board of Education. Her knowledge of Eastern requirements, added to her long experience in matters educational, lends great weight to her opinions.

THE KOWLOON SCHOOL.

The Kowloon School is the outcome of a widespread desire throughout the Colony for a school, where children of European nationality should be given the opportunity of being educated apart from Asiatic surroundings.