School Certificate Examination - UK

China Mail 1935-11-04

RESULTS OF HOMEWORK OVERPRESSURE THE CURSE OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS

 (By The Hon. H. B. Lees-Smith)

(He was a professor of economics and public administration, lecturing at the London School of Economics (LSE) and serving as a key figure at Ruskin College, Oxford.)

London:

Secondary schools are once again settling down to their new year. Tens of thousands of fathers and mothers are hoping that their children will be happy in these schools for the next four or five years. Most of them will find that, in the first year or two, their children's happiness is overshadowed by overpressure, the curse of the secondary schools. This will show itself mainly in the amount of homework. One hour a day for homework is ample, but parents will gradually see their children bringing home two, three, and sometimes even four hours' homework a night. They will leave home in the morning at the same time as their fathers. But when the fathers come home for dinner, having finished the business of the day, the children will still have a quarter of a day's work to do. Teachers, examiners, and educationists are humane people, yet the passivity with which they watch schoolchildren doing a longer day's work than dock labourers, businessmen, or civil servants will seem, in a few years, as heartless as the indifference of their forerunners to "Dotheboys Hall."

(Dotheboys Hall is a fictional, notoriously abusive boarding school in Charles Dickens's 1839 novel, Nicholas Nickleby. The name itself is a satirical pun meaning "do the boys [out of their money and rights]" or to subjugate them)

The effect of overwork is less serious upon boys than upon girls. When a boy feels lazy, he is lazy. However, a father wrote about his daughter's transformation from a happy, normal girl to a worried-looking young woman after winning a scholarship at the local secondary school, attributing it to the results of homework. In its educational results, the system is equally futile, for it defeats its own intentions. As the mind does not retain knowledge pumped into it by this kind of forcible feeding, ten years after leaving school the great mass of the children will have forgotten nine-tenths of the knowledge that was so conscientiously squeezed into them.

Where is the root of this curse? The answer to this question leads us to the real bogey: the School Certificate examination. Every child is expected to take this examination at the age of 16. It was originally intended to be taken by the normal child in its stride, without worry or pressure of any kind. But the whole plan has gone wrong. The Universities have perverted it by allowing it to be used for matriculation, for entrance into the Universities. The ordinary system now is that a School Certificate examination passed with five credits is equivalent to University Matriculation. The whole curriculum of our secondary schools is framed so as to prepare children to enter the Universities. As only 5 per cent of the children ever go to the Universities, we are spending vast sums of money preparing 95 per cent of the children for a life that they will never lead.

The entrance age for Universities is 18, but the School Certificate is expected to be taken at about 16. All the children, therefore, are endeavouring to pass at the age of 16 an examination intended for young people two years older. The inevitable result is cramming, over-pressure, and excessive homework. Headmasters, teachers, and educational committees are victims of the system as completely as the children themselves. Their schools are judged by the number of matriculations they obtain each year, and so they must discourage all subjects which will not "pay" in the final examination. A little while ago, the author asked a 14-year-old boy whether he would like a book as a present for his birthday. He replied, "I shall not have time to read books until after I have left school." Miss Mead of Bolton summed up the situation at the conference of the Association of Head Mistresses, stating: "Matriculation by School Certificate is a farce, a misnomer. The draper, the chemist, the typist, and the office boy are making it their own. A school is judged not by the number of school certificates, but by its number of matriculations. The admiring public do not realise that the school is turning out neither University entrants nor decently educated shop assistants or clerks."

A parent who wrote to a headmistress a few months ago complaining about the amount of homework her child was set each day received the following perfectly fair reply: "The School Certificate examination demands every minute of their time. It is quite impossible to get through the work for this examination unless pupils can spend at least two hours a day on homework. It may be said, 'But if a child is not going to the University, why should he not be satisfied just to pass the School Certificate without trying to obtain the University matriculation standard?' The reason is that employers have a mystic belief in Matriculation, because this is the only examination that they have heard about." An applicant for a post recently told an employer that he had taken his degree. "Hang your degree!" replied the employer. "What I want is the matric." The ultimate interview with an employer determines the teaching of the schools from the age of 11 onwards. When children are learning Scripture, Shakespeare, or art, they are in reality silently fighting each other for the eventual job.

The remedy is simple: Let the Universities refuse to give matriculation certificates based on the result of the School Certificate examination. A few months ago, the headmaster of Christ's Hospital tried to discover how many headmasters of the great public and secondary schools approved of the present combination of the School Certificate and matriculation. He received thirty replies, of which five were doubtful, one definitely preferred the present system, and twenty-four were dissatisfied.

In 1890, Hong Kong was a British crown colony, and it did not import overseas students. Instead, local Hong Kong students were treated as the "overseas candidates" by Britain. They sat for highly competitive, rigorous examinations shipped over on boats directly from England. 

1. The Arrival of the Oxford & Cambridge Local Exams

Just a few years before 1890, the colonial government established Hong Kong as an official overseas examination center for the UK: 

The Cambridge Local Examinations were introduced to Hong Kong in 1886.

• The Oxford Local Examinations followed immediately in 1889. 
• Elite students at top colonial schools—such as the Government Central School (renamed Victoria College in 1889, later King’s College and Queen's College) and St. Joseph's College—sat for the exact same "Junior" and "Senior" papers as kids in London.
• 2. High Stakes: The Government Scholarship Exams

Because there was no university in Hong Kong in 1890 (the University of Hong Kong wasn't founded until 1911), public exams were used to award the prestigious Government Scholarships. 

The top-scoring boys on these British exams won fully funded passages and tuition to study abroad in England to become doctors, lawyers, or colonial administrators. 

Philanthropists like E.R. Belilios funded similar scholarships, and in 1890, he helped found the Belilios Public School—the first government bilingual high school for girls, designed to teach young women the Anglo-Chinese curriculum so they could pass these standards. 

Famous Example from 1890

A famous student caught in this exact system was Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He attended the Government Central School in the mid-1880s, masterfully navigated this highly competitive Western exam system, and was studying at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese right around 1890.

The Cambridge Local Examinations were introduced in 1886 and the Oxford Local Examinations in 1889. Being an examination centre of the Cambridge/Oxford Examinations put the pupils of Hong Kong on common ground of assessment with other colonies in the British Empire and the Metropole herself. Scholarships were set up by the Government and philanthropists such as Mr Belilios to select the best students from government district schools to the Central School, and from Central School to further study in England. Similar scholarships were also offered to pupils of individual Grant-in-aid schools. The Central School for Girls (later renamed Belilios Public School) was founded in 1890 to give an Anglo-Chinese education for girls. It was believed that English language and culture could not be promoted by educating the young men only. It was the educated wives and mothers that would take up the civilizing role.

China Mail 1936-01-17

His Excellency the Governor, Sir Andrew Caldecott, C.M.G., C.B.E., presented the prizes at the annual prize-giving ceremony held at Queen's College this morning. A large gathering of friends and relations of the students was present.

In his speech, the Headmaster made pointed reference to the declaration of the last Governor, Sir William Peel, who had expressed hope that the Government would find it possible to provide a new Queen's College in the not too distant future.

In asking His Excellency to distribute the prizes, the Headmaster said: "May I first of all, sir, express our great appreciation of the honour you have conferred upon us by your presence here so soon after your arrival in the Colony? On behalf of the school, I extend to you a hearty welcome.

"I regret I cannot welcome you to more congenial surroundings. We are all very proud of this stately and historic building (once destined, I understand, to be the Supreme Court) and particularly of this magnificent hall. Admittedly, the neighbourhood is somewhat more salubrious than it was a few years ago, but even so, you will readily perceive, sir, that we are not ideally situated, nor is the building suited to the requirements of a modern school. We still stand within 50 yards of our original foundation in 1862. It gave us great satisfaction, therefore, when your predecessor, Sir William Peel, announced publicly, shortly before his departure, that he hoped Government would find it possible to provide a new Queen's College in the not too distant future.

"I will not trouble you with the usual school statistics, which are much the same from year to year. Our numbers have kept steady (round about 600), although there has been evidence in the last year or two of a falling off in the number of applicants to our lowest class, Class 8. This year, 1935-36, we have had a record number of entries to the Senior School, Class 3, from the various Government District Schools.

"In the School Certificate Examination, which was held for the first time last June in place of the Hong Kong University Matriculation Examination, 29 passed out of 64, nine with Honours (63 per cent. against an average of 36 per cent. for the Colony, Boys). Ng Shun Hung gained six Distinctions out of a possible nine, one being the only Distinction given in Chinese. He was awarded a Government Education Scholarship to the University of Hong Kong. May I congratulate the University authorities on so successfully gauging our standards for the examination!

"There has been much discussion during the last year, both in the Press and elsewhere, about examinations in general, and the School Certificate in particular. The writer of a recent report stigmatises examinations as a disease to be stamped out. I am not at all sure that young humanity themselves, in Hong Kong, would approve of such drastic action. I believe it was Huxley who said that examinations are a necessary evil—but at least he admitted they were necessary. There is little doubt that, when run on proper lines, they are not only indispensable but are invaluable. It has been well said that they act both as a powerful 'stimulus' to the pupil and a necessary 'audit' to the teacher, and without them, I fear our work would suffer. The school record and school report system of assessing the intelligence and industry of pupils is surely open to the objection that teachers are not always infallible in their judgments of their pupils. These methods must be reinforced by independent tests.

"The present School Certificate Examination fulfils one important condition of a good school examination, namely, that it is determined largely by the school curriculum and syllabuses and not vice versa, and in this respect, it differs fundamentally from the old Matriculation, a difference which I am afraid some do not appreciate. In certain respects, the old Matriculation was an evil for a school-leaving examination; there is now little conflict between the curriculum and the present examination. The School Certificate should not be an incubus or an evil, as suggested, for it is a test at the end of a pupil's school career on most of the ordinary school subjects, taught over many years, and which, after much discussion, were considered necessary in Hong Kong. The examination is somewhat rigid, but as stated on a previous occasion, anything elastic is apt to perish in Hong Kong; or, to apply a well-known principle of economics, bad (i.e., soft) subjects will always drive out good subjects.

"Keeping in mind the educational requirements and wishes of Hong Kong parents and boys, our examination programme (and hence our whole educational system) must of necessity differ considerably from those obtaining elsewhere, and of these, there are endless varieties. We are not called upon, for example, to fit our boys into any particular niche of employment or social life. It is somewhat difficult to state an aim in so many words. A School Certificate Examination should be less academic than Matriculation, of a more human and everyday kind; it should be taken in the stride of pupils, without the necessity for cramming, and with a good prospect of success, provided previous promotions have been conscientiously made. For the average Hong Kong pupil, I feel that (to quote from a previous report), if on leaving school he can read the varied news in English and Chinese newspapers with fair ease and intelligence, then the schools have done, academically, all that can be expected of them, and the School Certificate Examination, based as it is on a curriculum which provides a good background of knowledge in a number of subjects, will go far towards ensuring this aim. It is rather the fashion to gird at newspapers, and yet they do enter largely into our daily lives.

"I am much in sympathy with a recommendation of the recent report which states that a Leaving Examination should be held at an earlier stage than at present, in order to cater for a wider range of pupils. I have frequently drawn attention to the abnormal falling off in numbers in the Senior School from Class 3 to Class 1; usually about 60 per cent. leave before the end for one reason and another. This is educationally most unsound and uneconomic. I am convinced there is a large and genuine demand for an independent Certificate before Class 1: the Headmaster's certificate is not sufficient. The old Junior Local Examination served this purpose to some extent. Last week, about 80 boys out of 110 from my two senior classes sat for the Government Clerkships Examination: they want posts, they are prepared to leave. They stay on to Class 1 now, if they can get there, to take the present School Certificate Examination, and I view with concern the future of these senior classes if many of them pass and are called up by Government. An examination at an earlier stage would not, I think, affect those who wish to enter University later.

"Owing to the change in the school year, this Examination now cuts right across our school year, and I would again plead that the School Leaving Examination be taken by Government as their recruiting examination for clerks.

"During the year, Government levelled and returfed, at considerable expense, a large portion of our recreation ground at Causeway Bay; I can assure Government that it was money well spent. Since then, the ground has been made available for organised games for four other Government schools, and I have no hesitation in saying that school games for all of us have taken on a new lease of life. There is tremendous activity nowadays in games; we play cricket, football, hockey, tennis, volleyball, and basketball, and both inter-class and inter-school matches are arranged regularly. Occasionally, we play teams from Canton, etc. Our organised games now take place during school hours: parties of 100-150 boys go down twice a week, in charge of masters, and all boys, unless specially exempted, are expected to play games.

"Under this hall, we have a splendid basement equipped for indoor recreation: ping pong, chess, reading of library books and magazines, display of pictures of current events, newspapers, etc. It is invariably crowded both before and after school. A few months ago, the boys in charge of this basement started a weekly periodical of their own: it is typed, in English and Chinese, is illustrated, and is pinned up for all to read—a most commendable effort.

"I regret to say that only 30 to 40 per cent. of our boys can swim—a rather deplorable situation in a place like Hong Kong. It would be a splendid thing, if only for their physique, if schoolboys could be sent regularly to the beaches in the summer months as was the case a few years ago before the Government beaches were closed down. With our modicum of Physical Training in school, organised games in the winter, and organised swimming in the summer, the problem of Physical Education, on which so much stress is laid in modern education all over the world, would in large measure be solved, to the tremendous benefit of the pupils individually and to the Colony generally.

"The increased alertness in school during the last few months has been remarkable, and many members of my Staff have commented on this. It is a common thing now for boys themselves to open up doors and windows, rather than sit as heretofore in stuffy rooms. I should like to remove a misapprehension which, I understand, exists in the minds of certain parents, namely, that school hours devoted to organised games are so much waste time, or perhaps I should say time lost to the pupils' studies. It has been proved by actual experiment at home that the work was better done after the introduction of these games. I can assure parents that there will be no loss of efficiency on this score and that the school work will not be allowed to suffer. Formerly, apart from a few aristocrats at games, it was work and little or no play; there is little danger of the pendulum swinging too far the other way. Each boy gets only a couple of hours a fortnight at these, and I do not think this can be regarded as excessive.

"The Yellow Dragon, our school magazine, which has been published without a break since 1899, continues to pay tribute to the links which join us to the Old Boys, the other being the Old Boys' Association. The latter again held a successful dinner in this hall during the year.

"Mr. E. Burney, His Majesty's Inspector, on his visit to the school last year, remarked on the excellence of our libraries: we have a College Library for Staff and senior pupils (1,310 vols.), 19 Class Libraries (1,602 vols.), a Science Library (299 vols.), a Teachers' Reference Library (528 vols.), and a Chinese Library (483 vols.).

"Mr. Ng Fung Chan, the senior Anglo-Chinese master in the Education Department, retired on pension from Queen's College in November after 37 years of faithful and loyal service. I regret the impending departure of Mr. H. G. Wallington and Mr. K. L. Chan, on transfer to other schools, after 12 years' excellent service at Queen's.

"A notable event during the year was the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of His Majesty the King. We have at least 50 Old Boys at various Universities; at the recent Hong Kong University Congregation, former pupils of Queen's received their degrees. I extend to them our hearty congratulations.

"I desire to thank Sir Robert Ho Tung for defraying the cost of renovating the paintings which adorn this hall; the Queen's College Old Boys' Association for their continued support and for their generosity in many ways, and the Editors of the Yellow Dragon. The year has been one of quiet and steady progress; the discipline and tone of the school remained excellent for this, and for the success that has been achieved in work and play. I am indebted to the enthusiastic and devoted labours of my Staff, and I thank Government. I want to thank you heartily for the welcome."

The Governor then spoke: "which you have given me this morning. I always enjoy visiting schools because I am one of those lucky people who enjoyed their own school days and like to be reminded of them. In retrospect, certain, shall we say, salutary but painful incidents fall into a proper, and now painless, perspective. I have listened with great interest to the Headmaster's speech. I don't pretend to understand all that he has said about examinations, which is lucky, perhaps, because, if I had, I might have been tempted into rash and unguarded consent or dissent. If the Director of Education feels that representations on this subject should be made to Government, he will doubtless make them, and they will of course be carefully considered. I can say no more than that.

"As regards new premises for this school, anybody who is studying the public finance of this Colony seriously will agree with me that the project of new buildings must be relegated for the present to the category of castles in the air. And, as Calverley put it, if you can't realise your ideal, you must do your best to idealise the real. In other words, we must make the best of what we have got, and from what I have already learned of the traditions and record of Queen's College, I know that this will be philosophically and successfully done.

"It now remains for me to congratulate not only the prize-winners but the runners-up, that is to say, all who have put in a good term's work. Every hard worker may be said to participate in the prizes. That is all I have to say, except to thank you again, Mr. Headmaster, for inviting me to come here this morning."

Among those present were G. B. Sayer, Director of Education; Sir William Hornell; Hon. Brett; Dr. R. E. L. Kotewall; Mr. H. K. Woo; the Hon. Mr. N. L. Smith; Mrs. F. J. de Rome; Messrs. W. Kay, A. Morris, J. L. MacPherson, M. H. Lo, A. T. Hamilton, G. W. Reeve, E. G. Wallington, G. P. de Martin, Rev. N. Evans, and Rev. H. R. Wells.

**List of Prize-winners**

**Scholarships**

*  Senior Morrison Scholarship: Ng Shun Hung

*  Intermediate Morrison Scholarship: Chung Pui Sun

*  Class 2b Morrison Scholarship: Chau Wing Sum

*  Class 3 Morrison Scholarship: Hang Shek Chin

*  Junior Morrison Scholarship: Au Hung Cho

*  Wright Scholarship: Pang Kwok Yee

*  Ho Tung Scholarship: Lo Kan

*  Ho Kom Tong Scholarship: Lo Hing Sung

*  Ho Fook Scholarship: Lam Shing Kuen

*  Alfred May Scholarship: Lan Pak Kong

*  Senior Belilios Scholarship: N. Ahmed

*  Junior Belilios Scholarship: Fok Cho Man

*  Lee Hysan Scholarship: Lak Ki Chim

*  Grant Scholarship: Ng Sai Ching

*  Kong Ki Fai Scholarship: Fung Yue Keung

*  Tsoi Kung Po Scholarship: Tam Ping Kuen

*  Lagard Scholarship: Wong Wai Pong

*  Government Free Scholarships (6) for 3 years: Ng Ching Ting, Ho Ka Lim, Ng Tsun Man, Chan Tak Cheung, Law Cheung Yin, and Kwok Man Chung

*  Government Free Scholarships (4):

   *   Class 5-Class 4: Tam Yea Yan

   *   Class 6-Class 5: Li Sik Lam

   *   Class 7-Class 6: Wong Yue Sing

   *   Class 8-Class 7: Ng Kwok Cheung

*  Woo Hay Tong Scholarships:

   *   Class 5-Class 4: Leung Sui Chan

   *   Class 6-Class 5: Mak Siu Kan

   *   Class 7-Class 6: Ngai Kwong To

   *   Class 8-Class 7: Yeung Sit Lae

*  Ho Wing Scholarship: Chow Shing Cho

*  Ho Yin Scholarship: Yeung Woon Lam

*  Ho Kwong Scholarship: Ng Kwok Sun

*  Dealy Scholarship: Cheng Tat Ming

*  Ralphs Scholarship: Fong Chun Piu

*  Ng Yin Scholarship: Ho Woon Kam

*  Tsang Chung Scholarship: Kam Wing Kong

*  Sheng Hing Scholarship: Chung Chak Lan

**Special Prizes**

*  Machell Memorial Prize: N. Ahmed

*  Special Prizes for English:

   *   Class 1: Ng Shun Hung

   *   Class 2: Chan Wing Sum

   *   Class 3: Hung Shek Chin, Woo Lai Woon

*  Translation Prizes:

   *   Chinese to English - Classes 1 & 2: Li Hon Wah

   *   Class 2: Yue Shin Kwan

   *   Classes 4 & 5: Leung Shiu Chun

   *   English to Chinese - Classes 1 & 2: Fong Chun Kwan

   *   Class 3: Tam Ping Kuen

   *   Classes 4 & 5: Wai Mo Kui

*  Prizes for Mathematics:

   *   Class 1: Chung Pui Sun

   *   Class 2: Lo Hing Sung

*  Rumjahn Prize for Literature: Ng Shun Hung

*  History Prizes:

   *   Class 1: Ng Shun Hung

   *   Class 2: Lak Ki Chim

   *   Class 3: Wu Kei Kan

*  Geography Prizes:

   *   Class 1: Ng Shun Hung

   *   Class 2: Lo Kan

   *   Class 3: Wu Kei Hau

*  Composition Prizes:

   *   Class 1: N. Ahmed

   *   Class 2: Chan Wai To

   *   Class 3: Tam Ping Kuen

*  Urdu Prizes:

   *   Class 2: A. Z. Khan

   *   Class 3: 1st, A. S. Mohamed; 2nd, Hakim Ali

*  Special Chinese Prizes:

   *   Classes 1-4: 1st, Pan In Po; 2nd, Ng Shing

   *   Classes 5-8: 1st, Wong Yue Sing; 2nd, Eni Chan Kwong

*  Prize for Honours in School Certificate Examination: Chung Pui Sun, Fong Chun Kwan, Li Hon Wah, Man Hung Cho, Mok Kai Wing, Nazir Ahmed, Ng Shun Hung, Pang Kwok Yee, and Yuen Yuk

*  Prize for Distinction in Chinese in School Certificate Examination: Ng Shun Hung

**English Class Prizes**

*  1A: 1st Mok Kai Wing, 2nd Li Hon Wah

*  1B: 1st Lo Ngok Hung, 2nd F. A. Curreem

*  2A: 1st Lau King Ching, 2nd Chan Shu Hay

*  2B: 1st Wong Kwok Hung, 2nd Lo Kwok Wing

*  2C: 1st Lam Kin, 2nd Cheung Tat Chi

*  2D: 1st Lai Chi Pui, 2nd N. Singh

*  3A: 1st Yue Shin Kwan, 2nd Chan Yim Cheong

*  3B: 1st Wu Kei Kan, 2nd Ko Shin Wing

*  3C: 1st Ng Kit Man, 2nd Chan Kam To

*  4A: 1st Kwok Hee Leung, 2nd To Nim Chi

*  4B: 1st Chan Pak Lam, 2nd Ho Hung To

*  5A: 1st Wai Mo Kui, 2nd Li Shing Ngai

*  5B: 1st Yeung An Wah, 2nd Chun Kam Wai

*  6A: 1st Tsoi Hok Kan, 2nd Tam Ting Kon

*  6B: 1st Yuen Fai Ling, 2nd Tang Hor Yuen

*  7A: 1st Cheng Chung Sai, 2nd Fung Hing Kwai

*  7B: 1st Kwong Yok Shun, 2nd Chu Hung Fan

*  7C: 1st So Woon, 2nd Tsoi Kam Kong

*  8A: 1st Ip Chung Pui, 2nd Mok Ma Tat

*  8B: 1st Wong Che Ying, 2nd Chu Ka Shu

*  8C: 1st Chan Yee Tai, 2nd Lai Chi Shing

**Chinese Class Prizes**

*  1A: 1st Pan In Po, 2nd Man Hung Cho

*  1B: 1st Fok Koon Ying, 2nd Wei Chi Yan

*  2A: 1st Pang Kai Ip, 2nd Fong Chung Chak

*  2B: 1st Wong Yan Chow, 2nd Tong Po Cheung

*  2C: 1st Yeung Tak Wa, 2nd Lo Kwai Hung

*  2D: 1st Wong Ho Sun, 2nd Leung Kon Sing

*  3A: 1st Yue Shin Kwan, 2nd Chan Ka Cheuk

*  3B: 1st Wong Man Tai, 2nd Mui Kwok Yin

*  3C: 1st Au Yeung Pang, 2nd So Kwong

*  4A: 1st Cheng Koon Tin, 2nd Li King Yin

*  4B: 1st Yung King Woon, 2nd Ng Pat Cheung

*  5A: 1st Wai Mo Kui, 2nd Lo Su Ying

*  5B: 1st Ng Kwok Ching, 2nd Chak Yu Sum

*  6A: 1st Li Chin Yuen, 2nd Lau Koon Fai

*  6B: 1st Kwong Yin Cheong, 2nd Chan Kam

*  7A: 1st Lai San Pui, 2nd Chan Nai Tsang

*  7B: 1st Wong Shin Kwan, 2nd Chu Hung Fan

*  7C: 1st Tsoi Kam Kong, 2nd Cheung Tat Pang

*  8A: 1st Pang Kam Wa, 2nd Tsoi Siu Lam

*  8B: 1st Chu Ka Shu, 2nd Wong Che Ying

*  8C: 1st Chan Yee Tai, 2nd Lai Chi Shing

China Mail 1902-12-06

During the past two years, only six girls from the Hongkong Centre have passed the Oxford Local Examinations. Four of these successful candidates were prepared privately by Mrs. Tuxford. This year, the only girls who passed, one preliminary and one senior, were also prepared by Mrs. Tuxford.

Mrs. Tuxford is a College-trained, 1st-Class Certificated Mistress who was formerly headmistress of St. Michael's School, Sittingbourne, a girls' school with 250 pupils. Her coaching efforts are not limited to girls; she has also successfully coached three male candidates. Overall, out of eight candidates prepared by Mrs. Tuxford during the past three years, only one has failed.

With reference to the Pupil Teachers, two of the three have, since June, been acting as Chinese Assistant Masters and so have not been able to attend any class of instruction—save that on school management—yet one of them, Leung Lan-Fan, has passed the Oxford Local and obtained the title of Associate in Arts. As the Monitors are not articled, they are frequently leaving for more lucrative employment, and thus there are constant changes in the Normal class, which make good results in an examination an impossibility, and further, as Mr. JONES, who has had charge of this class, has pointed out to me, these changes make the teaching a thankless task.

This year, nine pupils went in for the Senior Oxford Local, of whom three passed. Two being under the age of 19 years were declared Associates in Arts, and the other one gained his certificate.

The following are the results of Examinations just held. There were 692 boys examined, of whom 619 passed, which gives a percentage of 89.45, and though this is lower than in previous years, yet considering that many promotions were made after the Mid-summer Vacation to allow new boys to enter, and as thus very many boys had only six months to get up their work in, I consider the results on the whole satisfactory. To particularise, the work done in classes IA, IIB, IIIA, and the Preparatory School in general, deserves special mention; while that of IB and IIIB is far below the average.

Of the boys who have left during the past year, 3 have entered the Colonial Service, 11 the Chinese Imperial Customs' Service, 38 have obtained employment in the various firms and private offices in the Colony, and 25 have gone, under Foreign employ, to the Coast Ports. A good many boys have left school without assigning any reason, but from what I can gather, the two chief causes seem to be inability to pay the fees and change of residence. Unless a boy is leaving to go into some office, for which he requires a certificate, it is very difficult to get from the Chinese the actual cause of a boy's leaving.

 Apart from any other consideration, the efficacy of the system is demonstrated by the efficiency of the Chinese Assistants who were thus trained, several of whom hold Oxford or Cambridge Local Certificates. That Chinese Assistants should vary in natural aptitude for teaching, and in their ability to pronounce English purely, is not surprising, as the same variety is observable in the masters of schools in England.

13. **Oxford Local Examinations**

   Last July there were from this College, one Senior and thirteen Junior Candidates; the Senior Candidate passed, and three Juniors also received certificates. There would have been four more successes, but for failures in Shakespeare, which is naturally a stiff subject for Chinese boys, and is rendered doubly so by the short time (four months) available for its preparation.

16. LOCAL EXAMINATIONS.—Arrangements were made during the year 1892, both with the Senate of London University and with the College of Preceptors in London, to recognize the Government Offices, Hongkong, as a centre for local examinations in connection with those Examining Bodies. An examination for the teachers' diploma of membership of the College of Preceptors was accordingly held in Hongkong, in July 1892, but the proposed London University Matriculation Examination had to be postponed. The results of the annual Oxford Local Examinations, held in Hongkong in July 1892, were as under:

I. Junior Division.—Honours List, none. Pass List. Diocesan School, 4 passes; Victoria College, 2 passes; Victoria English School (Girls), 2 passes. Candidates, who, having exceeded the age of 16 years, satisfied the Examiners,—Victoria College, 1 pass; High School, 1 pass; Victoria English School (Girls), 1 pass. Successful candidates who obtained distinction,—in English, Diocesan School, 1; Victoria English School (Girls), 1. Details of examination results of Junior Division: presented 22; examined 20; pass in preliminary subjects, 16; passed in religious knowledge, fully 10, partly 2; passed in English, fully 16, partly 4; passed in mathematics, 8; passed in drawing, 6. Total of certificates issued, 10. Total of pass certificates issued to candidates who had exceeded the limit of age, 3.

II. Senior Division.—Honours List, none. Pass List, Victoria College, 3; Diocesan School, 2; High School, 1. Successful candidates who obtained distinction, none. Details of examination results of Senior Division: presented, 7; examined, 7; passed in preliminary subjects, 7; passed in religious knowledge, 4; passed in English, 7; passed in natural science, 6; passed in book-keeping, 2. Total of certificates issued, 6.

The foregoing results may be summarized, thus: Diocesan School, 6 passes and 1 distinction; Victoria College, 6 passes; Victoria English School, 3 passes and 1 distinction; High School, 2 passes.

A Committee was appointed to consider the possibility of holding regular examinations for the senior Classes in History and Geography under the auspices of the Oxford Local Delegacy. The report of this Committee is now in the hands of the Government.

The institutions designated as "secular" schools in this Colony are the Government Schools, established, maintained, and controlled exclusively by the Government, independent of payment by results, and the Kaifong Schools, maintained by Chinese Associations that decline government aid. These schools are not entirely secular because they teach the principles of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism using Chinese standard school books. One Government School, which has recently ceased providing Chinese education, teaches portions of the Christian Scriptures in certain classes preparing for the Oxford Local Examinations. Nevertheless, all Government and Kaifong Schools are secular in that they do not aim to instill the principles of Christianity. They are secular in that they are non-Christian and aim to propagate morality rather than religion in the usual sense.------1896

**11.** **Oxford Local Examinations:** We paid 18 fees, but only 15 boys presented themselves, of whom eight obtained certificates, viz: three Seniors under 19 years of age, and five Juniors over 16 years of age. Of Special Subjects, 1 boy passed in Bookkeeping, 2 in Drawing, 2 in Physiography and 1 in Trigonometry. U HANG-KAM, who headed the Senior List in this place, was marked Good in Arithmetic, Shakespeare and Algebra; and Foк CHI-YAN, who took the same position amongst the Juniors, obtained the same mark in Arithmetic and Shakespeare. Of the eight boys who obtained Certificates, 4 were marked Good in Arithmetic, 4 in Shakespeare, 2 in Geography and 1 in Algebra. Taken as a whole, the result is very satisfactory, the percentage of passes as compared with last year being 53 58. There is a marked improvement in the work of the non-Chinese boys, though the Chinese still lead.

**12.** **Anglo-Chinese Class:** The number of boys examined in these divisions dwindled from 58 in 1889 to 12 in 1893. When then in March last I found only two boys presenting themselves to form a class, I first enquired of the parents the cause of their sons' absence, and then reported to the Government the extinction of the Anglo-Chinese Class. The reasons alleged by the parents appeared to be valid, and may be classified in the following manner: (1) several boys are under ten years of age, and it is objected that the study of Chinese, in addition to English, is too severe a strain; (2) others profess to attend classes for improvement in their own languages, Portuguese, Arabic &c; (3) others live out at East Point, and find it impossible or unhealthy to remain from 8 A.M. till 5 P.M. without a solid meal. Of the 103 non-Chinese boys on the Roll, 71 are in the Upper School and therefore exempted by Government Order, there remain then 32 to form the Anglo-Chinese Class, but 20 of these are about 8 or years of age.

EDUCATION IN ENGLISH.

12. The writer has now completed his 20th year in the Department, and a very brief comparison of the general development in that period may perhaps be allowed. Twenty years ago, our effort in English education was largely meaningless, because the teaching of spoken English was almost entirely neglected. The standard reached by a few pupils, as shown by the Oxford Local results, was, if at all, little below what it is now. But the general improvement is demonstrable by the fact that all pupils in the two Senior classes of all schools are now compelled to take the University Matriculation (or Senior) and Junior Examinations. Considering this, the percentage of passes is fairly high (Table VI), and compares favorably with that of the selected candidates from outside schools. Also it varies little from year to year. When a comparison is made between such schools as Queen's College (Government), St. Joseph's (Grant), and St. Stephen's (Uncontrolled), little difference can be detected. The syllabuses adopted have again and again been amended in detail by various strong committees. As a whole, I am satisfied that there is not room for any startling change in method or curriculum.

13. It is a well-known fact that the candidates who matriculate from the Straits have a higher knowledge of English as a whole than the average of Hongkong pupils: the reason, in fairness to local schools, should be known also. Here, by common consent, Chinese boys are expected to study Chinese, and this involves three years preliminary study in a Vernacular School, and about eight periods weekly for the eight years of their school career. In the Straits, on the contrary, it is not held essential that Chinese should be able to write their language.

Report of the Consultative Committee on Examinations in Secondary Schools