Sessional_Paper_1904 — Page 199

118

Of the Anglo-Chinese Schools, three at least-the Roman Catholic Cathedral School, the Ellis Kadoorie School, and the St. Stephen's Anglo-Chinese School- have given evidence of a desire to attach due importance to the study of spoken English The last is an encouraging example of a well-conducted school under Chinese Masters only. It has greatly improved in the last two years.

The Vernacular Schools have on the whole greatly improved in the last two years. This improvement is naturally most easily detected in those which elected to come under the new Code at once, and which were thus freed from a hard-and-fast course of study. The schools under the management of the Rev. H. R. WELLS of the London Mission shew great promise. Instead of the nursery classics-the Three Character, and the Thousand Character which were learned by heart with- out any idea of their meaning. a regular course of illustrated Chinese Readers has been adopted, and the change has proved exceedingly popular. These readers are the means of teaching not only the characters and their meanings, but also the simple lessons which are usually found in English Readers. Local Geography is taught throughout the schools, and not only (as hitherto) to the senior scholars. Mental Arithmetic is, in at least one Girl School of the Wesleyan Mission, being taught to every Class with great success.

STATISTICS.

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.

The following table shows the number of scholars in average attendance, com- pared with the figures for 1901. This method of calculation under-estimates the number in receipt of education, but reckoning by the total enrolment errs still more on the side of exaggeration.

NUMBER OF SCHOLARS IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE COLONY.

(Reckoned by the Average Attendance. The figures in brackets are those for 1901.)

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.

geeee

1 Kowloon Schoo!, ......................

1 Belilios Public School,...................

1 Queen's College, ..................................

3 Anglo-Chinese District Schools,

6 Vernacular District Schools,

(14) 12

(13)

(8)

GRANT SCHOOLS.

9 English Schools,

8 Anglo-Chinese Schools,.........................

(57) 53 Vernacular Schools,.....................

(79) 70

PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

(?)... English Private Schools,... (12) 28 Anglo-Chinese Schools, (95) 84 Vernacular Schools,..

(107) 107

(199) 189

English Schonts.

'03

9565

Anglo-Chinese Schools. Vernacular Schools.

CO.

(10.)

...

(110)

('01)

(F68)

OFG

'03

' ('01)

265

(287)

271

(266)

141

(110)

1,205 (1,181)

271

(266)

892

(836)

1,033

(946)

091

(435)

1,890 (1,926)

D

663

(526)

2,268 (2,457)

Totul.

(10)

£0.

1,617 (1,557)

3,542 (3,197)

2,926 (2,983)

2,628 (2,142)

4,424 (4,619)

8,085 (7,787)