Sessional_Paper_1906 — Page 602

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VERNACULAR SCHOOLS.

Belilios Public School, Vernacular Side.

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32. Mr. Ho KAN-PO, the former master, retired at the beginning of the year; and in his place I recommended a man of a very much more advanced type in Mr. SUNG HOK-PANG. Had there been a considerable falling off in attendance when the school came under the new control it would not have been surprising; for everyone knows that the relation between pupils and teachers is much closer among the Chinese than with us: the former do not so much attend a school as sit under a teacher. It was the more gratifying to find that no decrease followed, but that, on the contrary, the numbers tended to increase. I therefore felt justified in recommending that the Staff should be doubled-it has hitherto been quite inadequate numerically-and that a small school fee, 25 cents monthly, should be charged in 1906. The latter experiment is a severe test of the interest of parents in their daughters' education; the general opinion seems to have been that parents would not pay for the education of daughters, only to have them pass at an early age into another family. I may perhaps anticipate next year's Report by saying that this view, like many others which are based on the assumed selfishness and benightedness of the Chinese, has alrealy been stulti- fied by the event. My detailed Report shews that the school is giving a much more advanced education than can be had elsewhere in the Vernacular Schools.

33. Sheko Vernacular School continues to be unimportant.

GRANT SCHOOLS.

34. A detailed Report on the work done in each Grant School is given in Appendix B. The Annual Grant List shewing the number of Standards, the Attendance and the Grant earned by each school is given in Table VII.

English Schools, Non-Chinese.

35. The average attendance shews a satisfactory increase, from 849 to 924. Two schools- the Italian Convent and the Diocesan School for Boys-obtained the maximum Grant, having been returned as thoroughly efficient two years running.

Anglo-Chinese Schools.

36. Of these, three are in the Upper Grade; but only one, the Ellis Kadoorie School, is of much educational importance. That school has increased its average attendance from 186 in 1904 to 268 in 1905. It has outgrown its present accommodation; which is indeed not very suitable for a school. The authorities are adding largely to the premises; and the Government is pledged to make a Building Grant of $7,000.

37. There are now four Lower Grade Schools of this type, a new one under the London Mission having been added in the course of the year. Even with this addition the increase in numbers has been very slight, from 250 to 258. The one school which was well reported on last year has the whole of the increase. It is with much pleasure that I notice how fast Chinese parents are learning what they are entitled to expect, when they pay for an English education for their sons; and still more is it satisfactory to see that their ideas correspond with my own; for a reduced attendance is a stronger argument than any I can use. fluctuations in attendance, to which I have just drawn attention in this and the preceding section, shew that the requirements of the Government coincide with the wishes of the persons in whose interests they are made.

The

38. The Lower Grade Anglo-Chinese Schools were not favourably regarded by the Committee on Education, which contemplated their ultimate disappearance from the scheme of Aided Education. The success which has attended the endeavours to improve the teach- ing of the Chinese masters has of late years somewhat modified my own views on the subject; but at any rate, no master can learn how to teach without assistance. It is often asked why the Government does not open a Normal School. The answer is that it has Normal Classes every week at the District Schools, which the Chinese masters from the Grant Schools are invited and advised to attend. They never do; and the consequence is