200
LENGTH OF COURSE.
The student begins his education by studying four years in the ordinary elementary school. Then he devotes another four years to the course in the higher elementary school. Then comes the middle school which claims five years, The high school follows. Students who take civil and mechanical engineering spend four For the remainder a years in this course. variety of three year courses fit the students for the special Colleges in the Universities. In the University the Medical course is completed in four years, the Law course requires at least four years, but any of the other cour ses is finished in three years. Post-graduate work is limited to five years.
(September 30, 1907.
BCHOOL STATISTICS.
It is extremely difficult as yet to get at any statistics of schools. I give here what I have been able to collect from various sources.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
maintains a school of Police and Prison management and a school of Japanese Liters- turs. The Department of Communications has a school for Post and Telegraph and a College of Navigation. And so the field of Modern Education may be said to be at least fairly covered.
MODERN EDUCATION IN CHINA.
almost anybody we met, even to the working | and coolie classes, was able to make out the purport of such questions written in Chinese, and in very many cases to reply in the same This was invariably true of policemen. My friend got to carrying with him a pid of paper for this purpose. One day in Kyoto a missionary friend and I rode for several hours in jinriokshas, and distributed Coming now to China one cannot but be several hundred tracts by handing them out to deeply impressed with the extent and radical the people we passed. They were eagerly taken nature of the changes that have been brought
about within a in every case, and I noticed that the people who
very brief period and so took them, many of whom were labourers, risk-unostentatiously as to almost take the most shs and cart coolies immediately began to read watchful observers of development here by them. My friend said they would have no surprise. It is only five years ago (1902) that difficulty in understanding them. There are the government decided to gradually do way from 220 to 240 school days in the Japan se with the time-honored system of merely examin- school year as against 147 in the American ing self-prepared students, and to inaugurate a school year.
complete system of schools, modelled on the western pattern, teaching western subjects, and employing western methods. It was not until 1901 that the detailed plan for the present complete system of public schools for the whole Empire was adopted, and not until 1905 that the old system of examinations was finally The Board of Education was abolished. established by an Imperial Edict bearing date of December 6th, 1905. We must bear in mind therefore that the new system has been in actual operation for less than two years. Rs. member the shortness of the time, the almost absolute lack of competent teachers, the next to universal ignorance of the subjects contained in the western curriculum and of the methods of organization and management of western schools, and the great dearth of text-books,
you not astonished at the
made ? been Schools have been established in every one of the eighteen provinces on the basis of the new regulations. It is reported also that there is now no province without its Normal schools for the training of the teachers needed. There are already three provincial Universities organized, one at Tientsin, one at Taiyuan (Shansi), one recently organized at Nanking. There is also the National University at Peking, organized with Dr. W. A. Martin as President in 1897, but reorganized in 1903. There are countless Higher, Middle, and Elementary schools, and some Kindergartens. In the principal coast centres there are also schools for Indus- trial, Commercial, and Agricultural training being established, and Tientsin has schools of Fisheries and Navigation, established only this summer. There are also several schools of Foreign Languages, and at least two Engineer. ing Colleges, Nanyang (in Shanghai) and the T'ong Shan School. In addition there are the schools belonging to special departments of the government, such as the Naval and Military Academies, the Medical schools, the schools of Telegraphy, for the police, and the schools in which gentry and officials are trained for the duties of local self-government.
INFLUENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY.
Mr. Pieters gives it as his judgment that the Imperial University has contributed more than any other influence to the marvellous progress of Japan. He says, "It has given tone to all educational effort, has furnished a goal worthy of the highest aspirations of the best young men, and has supplied the nation with leaders in every sphere of activity except in that of religion. Through it Japan has been able not only to receive the science of the world, but also to contribute to it, for the original investigations of its professors, published in its learned magazines, have already in several instances attracted the attention of the learned world and added something to the suni of human knowledge." Its graduates are to be found in leading positions in all parts of the Far East, especially in Korea, Manchuria and China, editing newspapers, locating mineral wealth, establishing schools, building railroads, and advising rulers." Moreover students from China, Siam, Korea, and India are in attendance at the Universities. Certainly for a long time to come Japan will continue to exert, both directly and indirectly, a very strong influence in the educational development of China and Korea,
CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS,
both
and are
progress
that
has
SCHEME FOR THE UNIVERSITY.
CHILI PROVINCE.
The province of Chili easily takes the lead in educational activity. It has about 8,000 govern- ment schools of all grades, not including the se in Peking, and these are attended by 86,000 students. In Tientsin there are sixty elemen- tary schools, fifteen government and forty-five private; and seven middle schools, four of thạm government and three private. There are thirteen schools for girls, including one Normal and one High school. There are two Kinder- gartens (nineteen half-day schools, 10 of them government and 9 private), and fifteen night schools. Then there is the provincial University, two Medical schools, a school of Commerce and Navigation, a school of Fisheries (established in 1907), a school of telegraphy, a school of Draw- ing and Mathematics, a Chinese and German school, and the school in connection with the into which are Self-government Bureau, gathered some of the gentry for a four mouths course of training in the method of carrying on local government.
In Peking the prefectural authorities have established more than 40 schools of all grades. Here also is the National University and special schools of law, foreign languages police training, and a military school for the Sons of nobles."
"
(1
Ia Pao-tiny-f, in addition to the common schools, there have been established a large Normal school, a ilitary school, an Agricul- tural College, a school of Veterinary Surgery, and schools of Law and Science. There are over 2,300 students in attendance in grades above the elementary.
KIANGSU PROVINCE.
Kiangsu is in the Viceroyalty of Tuan Fang, who has been very active in educational affairs. He has recently established, with Imperial sanotion, the Nan Yang University, Nanking. More than forty schools of all grades have been pened in Nanking. There are also many new schools in Soochow, Shanghai, and other places in the province.
SHANTUNG, HUPEH AND HUNAN,
Shantung reports over 100 schools of sil grades, 20 of them in Chi-nan-fu.
There has been great activity in following out the new re.ulations in Hupeh and Hunan, but statistics have not been procurable.
KWANGTUNG PROVINCE.
Only recently a special commissioner was appointed by the Viceroy to examine into the condition of the schools and report to him. This ommissioner has just made Lis report, and the- figures for the Kwangtung province are as foll lows-Elementary schools 74, with 80,800 students; Middle schools 2, with 2,002 stu-,~ dents; Normal schools 90, with 5,882 students; Professional schools 6, with 2,300 students; and Girls' schools 6 (one of them supported by
It is the intention to have in time a Univer-government) with about 1,000 students. sity in each province. Here is the elaborate scheme at which they are aiming in the National University. There will be eight departments
as follows:-
1-1 Dept. of Classics, offering 11 differcat courses
2.-1 3.-1 4.-1
of Law
2
11
27
"}
11
of Literature
9
33
11
"1
11
of Medicine
2
$1
13
5.-1 6.-1
of Science
33
1 of Commerce
of Agriculture
6 +
8.-1
13
of Practical Industries offering different courses.
There are six y-four District Normal schools, turning out annually more than 8,000 teachers for elementary schools, and there are three higher Normal schools training teachers for middle schools. Japan has been wise in paying a great deal of attention to the industrial education of her people. She has established a proportionately large number of Agrionltural, Mechanical, Arts,
Apprentice, Fisheries, Commercial, and Nautical schools of Middle and Elementary grades, and nine well equipped and organized higher Technical institutions. In addition, the State has since 1894 encouraged the founding of supplementary 7.-1 industrial institutes, with such success that 1,436 such schools for teaching Agriculture alone are reported. There are, all told, ten schools of Medicine, nine private schools of Law, eleven of Literature, sixteen of Religion, and in Tokyo a school of Foreign Languages, a
school of Fine Arts, and an Academy of Masic.
There are reported besides, 668 miscellaneous schools, some public and some private. And finally, not a part of the educational system proper, are the very important schools maintained by the various departments of the Imperial govern- meat. To these belong the schools of all grades for the children of the nobles. The Naval Department has three schools. The War Department has fourteen schools, for information as to the efficiency of which the inquirer is referred the Russian government. The Department of the Interior' of age.
to
11
19
"
nine
The regular course proposed may be sum- marised as follows: Between the ages of three and seven years children are to receive Kinder. garten training. At seven years of age they are to enter the lower elementary grade, where the course should be completed in five years. At twelve years of age children will enter the higher elementary grade, where they will study four years. They will enter the Middle grade at sixteen, and finish the course in five years, At twenty-one they will be ready for the three years course in the higher grade, of Provin- cial College. This makes them 21 years old when they are ready for the University. The courses here will require from three to five years according to the choice of subjects. So that the student will graduate at from 27 to 29 years
This is only a partial statement, and contains
the seal of the government's approval. Schools only those schools that have registered and have whose affairs are in any way unsettled are not recognized by the government, and accordingly are not reported.
GIRLS' SCHOOLS.
The government at first announced that for the present it was unable to do anything in the Some high direction of female education. officials dissented from this decision. Tuan Fang in an audience with the Empress Dowager urged the importance of this branch of school work. She at once ordered the establishment of a girls' College. Some of the princesses, fol- lowing her example, founded several other girls' schools in Peking, some for daughters of the common people, and some for daughters of Girls attending these schools. are the nobles, required to unbind their feet, and are forbidden to use face paint and powder, and to wear jewelry and costly garments. This movement spread and soon similar schools were reported as having been established in Tientsin, Shangbai, Nanking, Soochow, Chingking, Chinaafu, and Hankow. The result has been to make the authorities realize that if they are to control the educational development of the country they must make some provision for the education of girls. This they have begun to do, and are gradually amuming control of the best.
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