to you the fifth annual report of the Society's Hongkong College. For grant-in-aid purposes, the school year ends on June 30th and on the 9th of that month we had a surprise visit and examination by Mr. E. A. Irving, Inspec- for of Schools. His opinion of the condition of the school at that time is voiced in the following statement::
INSPECTOR'e annual REPORT FOR 1904-05.
Discipline and Organisation.—The school has grown so much during the past year, that some increase to the European staff seems required. Many of the Chinese masters are insufficiently Boquainted with modern methods of teaching, but the Head Master's time is so largely occupi- ed with teaching that he has little left in which to advise and correct them. I do not think the organization is likely to be thoroughly satis- factory until the services of another trained English master are obtained. Discipline on the whole is very good. Work sent up for examination should be done neatly on foolscap paper. The school has made good progress during the year.
Sanitation.-Satisfactory. The buildings are not well adapted to accommodate the present large numbers. But there is no danger of insufficient ventilation.
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Apparatus. Very satisfactory except as regarda local maps in the lower classes.
English Colloquial. A considerable improve- ment has been made in the lower classes as com- pared with last year. But the result is not yet all that can be desired. The boys in the two top classes speak very well.
Reading--The readers used are suitable. Reading is well taught.
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Writing.-Class I. A. and B. did compositions which, taking the class as a whole, were very good. Two of them were excellent. They might, however, do even better,, if they would give more attention to the matter; some of them erred on the side of brevity. The com- position in Class II. was 'fair to poor." This is not surprising, remembering how badly these boys spoke English last year (see last Annua! Report). This case is a good instance to show how difficult it is to learn to write a language without ability to speak it. Composition is, on the whole, 'well taught in the lower classes.
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[January 22, 1908.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND | masters, or (2) by the Principal of each school, 82.87, or nearly 45 per cent, in attendance, and or college training the Anglo-Chinese mom- $1.171 or nearly 38 per cent, in grant esrded. bers of his own staff In the absence of the Since the end of the school year, June 30th, 1995, former, the latter appears to be the only the average attendance to date is 297.21 As our. alternative and if it is to be successful the school buildings are too small to accommodate the Principal must, to a certain extent, be relieved numbers seeking admission the Council resolved of other duties, that he may have the necessary to make an addition to the existing premises, time to devote to this object. Recognising Plans were prepared and the Government ap this, the Council of this Society is now engag.proached through the Educational Dept, with the ing the services of nother trained English object of securing a building grant. Cu this we Master and we expect him to arrive shortly. were successful and building operations began on As regards the lack of local maps in the Sept. 22nd, and should nothing untoward occur direct attention to we hope the work will be finished in May of the lower classes, I would the fact that good, reliable wall maps of present year. When completed we will have a Hongkong and the adjoining provinces of covered play-ground, a large examination hall, Kwang-tang and Kwang-si cannot be got in and three additional class rooms. This will the Colony. An effort has been made to follow enable us to accommodate 300 more pupils, or the course laid down by the Committee in His 60 in all. The total cost will be about $15,000 tory and Geography. The History book and of this amount the Government has, 1 prescribed, Meyer's General History, is an understand, agreed to pay $7,000. The system excellent text-book, but would be more suitable by which pupils are rewarded for regular The attendance by being exempted from payment for class teaching were it sub-divided. subject might then be commenced in Class III. of fees meets with increased success, for where.. instead of in Class II., as at present. Hygiene, as in 1904 only 14 boys made the possible as a class subject, was taken up as soon as the number of attendances, in 1905 86 bad, no manual, pablished by direction of the Govern absent mark recorded against them, while 76 have made 200 or more attendances out of a ment, was procurable, and has constituted a part of the regu ar curriculum since the first possible 213. The competitions in conn ction lesson was given on March 17th, 1905. Ex- with the Belilios Trust Fund No. 2 were perience suggests the advisability of having the resuscitated in 1905 and in the examination manual translated into Chinese for use in the held on April 27th Lau In Chung tied for 4th lower classes. The Shield and Prizes offered place. The Blake Scholarship of $50 has again for competition in this subject by your Excel. been wou by Lau Chung, but as it is tenable for 1 lency were great incentives to study, and in year only, it falls to the second boy, Lai Ki addition to a team for the Elementary course, Hong, who was but 11 marks behind his success- we entered five competitors for the Senior ful rival. For the Ho Kam Tong Scholarship course. The results were not encouraging, bat (junior) the contest was so keen that a second prove conclusively that a team composed solely and more difficult paper in translation had to be of Chinese boys and writing a foreign language sel. The measure of success and progress which cannot hope to compete successfully against has attended the school, work is due in no small other teams composed solely, or in part, of degree to the support I have received from the English-speaking students. Following the usual staff, and the keen interest taken in the welfare of the school by the members of Council, more. precedent the Head Master's annual examinatio was held in December. As in former years, ths especially the President and Hon. Secretary. bulk of the English papers in the upper classes I am pleased to have this opportunity of thank- were corrected by Messrs. Hamilton and Scott, ing them all to their hearty co-operation. In while the translations were examined and addition to the Directors of the Tang Wal marked by Mr. Fung, the senior Auglo-Chinese Hospital and the Committee of the Po Leang assistant. Stated concisely the results were us Kuk, we are much indebted to the large number follows:-Reading, 99 per cent.; dictation, 6.75 of gentlemen, over 50, who have so liberally Geography-An easy paper on Asia set to per cent.; arithmetic, 61.03 per cent.; English contributed to our Scholarship and Prize Fund, the top classes was well done; on the whole, composition, 75.12 per cent.; "English colloquial Time will not permit me to mention their though, in a somewhat slovenly and untidy 90.62 per cent.; geography, 86.80 per cent.; names here, but we are deeply sensible of their fashion. The art of illustrating answers by grammar, 79.18 per cent.; science, 97.77 per kindness, and of the practical way in which they sketch maps should be practised. Fuller answers cent.; translation (English to Chinese), 94.87 have shown their interest in, and sympathy with,
our educational work. are excepted from Classes I. and II. Loca, per cent,; translation (Chinese to English), geography is now taught in the lower classes 91.53 per cent.; history, 90 per cent,; mensura- The Chinese masters require assistance in tion, 65.55 per cent.; mathematics, 47.21 per selecting the facts to be taught. For example, in cent:; hygiene, 97.43 per cent. Compared with Class II. boys who knew the names of every little last year's results there is a decided improvement promontory around the Island, were yet ignorant in eight subjects, viz., reading, diolation, English of the position and uses of Taitam Reservoir, colloquial, geography, science, translatious and History. The course laid down by the Com-history, while in the remaining subjects the mittee on history and geography is being percentage is somewhat lower. The high per- followed. The subject is being taught centage of passes in translations from English thoroughly; but unfortunately the text books to Chinese and vice versa is due to the fact that this subject is now confined to the upper have been in the hands of the scholars for
classes. The Library, the inception of which I month or two only, not sufficiently long to enable me to fo. a definite opinion as to the mentioned in my last annual report, has been largely taken advantage of, more especially by rate of progres“.
the senior boys, to many of whom, I am source of pleased to say, it is proving a pleasure and profit. Some few additions were
of last made to it in the course
year, but more books, of a juvenile character, are :wanted for the younger pupils. In October last physical exercises and simple military drill were added to th curriculum as a voluntary subject, and 170 boys elected to take the course, For a month these were under native instructors, but it was thought advisable to adopt the English system, and since November 1st, Master Gunner P Gainher, R.A., has been in charge. firm but kindly discipline a marked improve- ment is already observable in their carrisge and appearance. Owing to the restricted area on which the school is built no adequate space is available for purposes of drill, and we are much indebted to our Vice-President, Mr. Fung Wa Chup, who kindly offered the use of part of his grounds at Altiora' for this purpose. In 1903-4 when the school was first placed under the Government grant-in-aid scheme the average annual attendance was 185,88 and the amount of grant earned $3,112. For 1904-5 the average annual attendance was 263.75 and the grant earned $4,283, being an increase of
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Hygiene. To Hygiene reader has been began and is being well studied as a reader. The Head Master has not found it practicable to illustrate the lessons by practical experiments. which is a pity.
Chinese-Is very good throughout the school. A difficult piece of translation from English into Chinese was well done in the top class.
Arithmetic.In the top class very good work
was done at examination. The s-cond ol.88 on the other hand did not do well. Arithm-tio may, however, be considered a strong subject throughout the school. The following two points should be borne in mind: (a) answers to money problems should be given in pounds, shilings and pence, or in dollars and cents, and not in fractions of a pound or dollar; (b) the unitary methods should be more frequently used in the solution of problems.
Grant. I recommend u grant at the rate of 30/
In the opening paragraph of his report. Mr. Irving puts his finger on the weak spot of our (system the ignorance of modern methods of teaching shown by our Anglo-Chinese masters. Now there are two ways in which this defect may be remedied. (1) By the establishment of a Training College for such
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Several of the students then displayed their abilities as elocutionists, and at the conclusion of this part of the programmo His Excellency presented the prizes. He then addressed those present as follows:-Ladies and Gentlemen- This school, while maintaining a satisfactory standard of efficiency, is rapidly increasing in numbers and importance. The attendance here is one of the best of any of the educational establishments in the Colony, and I hope it goes on as it is at present, and that before I leave Hongkong I will see an attendsure of 600 students. It has given me much satisfaction to recommend to the Secretary of State that a large building grant should be given to the school to provide for this attendance, and my recommendation has been approved by Mr. Lyttelton (applause). I am glad the manage- ment has recognised the necessity, pointed out by the Inspector of Schools, of adding to the European staff and to the instructional course, and I would point out that if the school desires to maintain its present standard of efficiency, and at the same time to constantly increase ite number, it would be well for the strength of the teaching staff to be kept rather above than below the requirements of the moment (ap- plauss).
HIS EXCELLENCY addressing the scholars, said :-Boys-I hope you as well as the masters have listened very carefully to the weak points in your work that were pointed out by the Inspector of Schools, and will do your best next term to improve in these subjects. I do not propose to dwell any more on these weak... points to-day, but I shall try to interest you on the same subject as I spoke about last year that is, the study of geography. Those of you who were here, then will remember that I said one of the easiest ways of learning geography was to read books of travel. Another pleamng
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