83. Class III B did not do well. boys wrote more or less nonsense. not understand the passages set. Chinese.
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The English appeared to be beyond this form. Five Two boys seemed to be able to write Chinese but could One boy understood the English but wrote very bad
84. Class III C. One boy did fairly well and the other three were unable to follow the English.
85. A much easier paper was set for Classes IV and V.
86. Class IV did very fairly with the exception of IV E in which all the boys wrote rubbish. Chan Chiu-hang did a good paper which had also the merit of being neat. There was a general ignorance of the Chinese equivalent for Registrar General and Captain Su- perintendent of Police.
87. Class V also did well on the whole. 24 boys did the paper, of whom 17 did well or fairly and 7 badly. The best paper was done by Li Kang Fu. In this class there was also a general ignorance of the titles of Officials. Some boys wrote down the form Ping t'au for the Governor of Hongkong. There is a General Order in connection with the use of this phrase and the boys should certainly all be taught the correct mode of referring to His Ex- cellency.
88. The boys in all these classes use an English pen for writing Chinese characters. This practice should we think be discontinued. Every Chinese boy should be able to form characters which are not an eyesore to the reader and this is almost an impossibility with an English pen. It is quite impossible to reproduce the beauties of the Chinese written character unless a Chinese brush is employed.
THE VERNACULAR SCHOOL.
89. The Vernacular School was tested orally by means of reading from the Chinese readers. Dictation was set and translation from Tsuk Wa into the Literary style was done. The top classes also wrote a letter in Chinese. The papers were unfortunately destroyed in a typhoon after they had been corrected but before the results had been analysed. In Class V many boys wrote good letters and did the translation well. A Chinese teacher to whom the papers were submitted stated that the style was in some cases admirable.
90. The dictation was well done by Class IV. In Classes III and II a certain number of ‘pak tsz " were used. 李 was written 此;穀 was written 谷;巨 was written 拒柜
.......but in the majority of cases the dictation was very fair.
91. The Vernacular School is undoubtedly doing very good work, and is certainly hav ing a good effect on the Chinese of the upper school."
92. Many of the failures in translation from English to Chinese more especially in Class III were due to lack of knowledge of English. But boys will gradually improve in English as they pass into higher forms and if they have passed through the Vernacular School and been well grounded in their own written language they will be able to translate English into good readable Chinese.
APPENDICES.
93. The Examination Papers (Appendix A) and the Classes and Divisions with the names of the Masters (Appendix B) are appended.
E. D. C. WOLFE, b.a.,
Inspector of Schools.
S. B. C. ROSS, B.A.
R. O. HUTCHISON, B.A.
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