Sessional_Paper_1906 — Page 598

HONGKONG.

No. 1906

20

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

REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, FOR THE YEAR 1905.

STAFF.

1. Appointments.-Mr. WILLIAMS to be Headmaster of the Victoria School, from 1st January, 1905.

Mrs. WILKINSON to be Headmistress of the Victoria School, from 20th January, 1905..

Mr. MORRIS to be Headmaster of the Saiyingpun School, from 16th June, 1905.

Mrs. DRUMMOND to be 2nd Mistress of the Kowloon School, from 12th December, 1905.

Mr. JEHANGIR KHAN to be Master of the Anglo-Indian School, from 16th December, 1905.

2. Resignations. -Mrs. MURRAY, 2nd Mistress of the Kowloon School, from 11th December, 1905.

Mrs. WHITEHEAD, Mistress of the Anglo-Indian School, from 15th December, 1905.

3. Leave.-Mrs. TUTCHER, 1st Assistant Mistress of the Belilios Public School, returned from leave on 30th March, 1905.

There have also been several changes in the Chinese staff of the District Schools.

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

4. Excluding $200 paid by Mr. ARCULLI towards the cost of the Indian School as explained in section 28 below, the Revenue collected by the Department amounts to $9,783:50. Details are given in Table I. A comparative statement of the revenue collected during recent years is given in Table II. It has increased from $922 in 1900, or by more than tep-fold.

5. The expenditure on Education, including Queen's College, for the year was $158,677.58, being 2.28% of the total Expenditure of the Colony. A statement shewing this ratio for recent years is given in Table III. The estimated expenditure was $189,335, of which, $30,657,42 were not spent.

NUMBER AND CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS.

6. Table IV shews the number of schools (Government and Grant) to be 83, an increase of 2 over last year's return. The average attendance was 5,323, as against 4,970. The proportion of pupils in the Upper Grade Schools to those, in Lower Grade Schools is as 3,146 to 2,177. The Chinese Side of the Belilios Public School has for the purposes of this calculation been treated as an Upper Grade School, for reasons given in section 32. Upper Grade Schools are defined in the Grant Code as those with a Staff competent to give instruction in all the subjects of Standard VII. The great majority of them are English or Anglo-Chinese Schools.

7. Table V shews the fluctuations in the average attendance in recent years. The steady increase in the numbers of pupils studying English is maintained. The correspond- ing decrease in Vernacular education has been checked. This is highly satisfactory when the improvement in the standard of the Vernacular Schools is considered. (See section 43 below.) It seems to shew that the improvement in them has the approval of parents.