Sessional_Paper_1908 — Page 157

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T.s and all the boys in both sections of the Class are thrown into hopeless disorder, a key being kept by Head Master. The marks awarded to one paper were 52, 70, 90, 90, 50, 63 and to another 70, 85, 96, 95, 64, 60. The following Table may be of interest showing how the number of papers under review is arrived at :—

Class J

II

32 boys. 83

III

180

IV

233

V

208

VI

181

VII

127

Total,

1,044

15 subjects. 13

480 papers.

1.079

11

1,980

11

2,563

9

1,872

905

381

9,260

Marked subjects of boys partially examined, Not Drawing. Special Subjects,

250

114

9,624

Deduct E. to C. Marks by Second Master,

736

Total marked by Head Master,

8,888

16. We have a most excellent English Staff. What is needed is for each master to specialise in some distinct branch. When I approached them by Circular for the expression of their views in this direction, they showed a remarkable unanimity in their desire to specialise on Natural Science: but as the Governing Body is opposed to the introduc- tion of Elementary Science into the curriculum, it behoves the English Masters to seek other channels for the vent of their energies. Mr. GRANT has for years been practically Mathematical Master in Class I also taking the subject of Bookkeeping in Class II. I propose next month to make Mr. CROOK quasi Professor of Geography a subject in which he has distinguished himself. The great need of the college is a man who will so devote himself to the subjects of English Grammar and Composition as to be an authority on these important subjects. Since the death of Mr. FALCONER (Second Master) twenty years ago, we have had no master prominent for ability in this direction, and the want of such a man is urgently felt in a college teaching the English language to students nearly all Chinese.

17. As regards the Chinese Staff, we may also congratulate the public on service faith- fully and energetically performed. Of these eleven Chinese Assistants, the four at the head of the list may without hesitation be at once classified as excellent, and there are two or three promising young masters below them. The great desideratum among the remainder is an awakening to the fact that it is only by hard private study that they can equip them- selves for the annually increasing demands made upon their store of knowledge, as teachers of a language foreign to them. Year after year by the abolition of lower classes they are promoted to the charge of higher classes, and in many instances it would appear that they are hardly equal to the strain. In this connection, it must be remembered that in spite of the fact that the Government has very greatly increased the scale of salaries attached to these posts, we do not find the better educated class of boys in the college electing education as a profession. In the old days the highest boys in the First Class were eager to be monitors at $4 a month now with $20 to $35 a month we have during the past eight years drawn our future masters from bare passes in Class I and even from Class II.

18. The Normal Master, Mr. RALPHS, speaks very highly of the work done by the five Pupil Teachers in their five respective classes. My observation throughout the year enables me to endorse his statement which is supported by the excellent results in Classes VI and VII at the Annual Examination. On the other hand, the result of the Pupil Teachers' examination in a Theoretical Paper and in Practical Demonstration in front of a class, together with the subjects Arithmetic, Dictation, Grammar, Geography, Composition and Translations from and into Chinese can only be described as a very qualified success.

19. Vernacular School.-707 boys were examined and 641 or 91 per cent. passed. 308 or 48 per cent. of the Vernacular School are now in the highest class, Class 5. As only a dozen newly admitted boys are fit for this class, it is evident that great credit is due to the Vernacular Masters for the high standard to which they have raised the native school in three years.