Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China/Inspectorate of Schools
THE INSPECTORATE OF SCHOOLS.
The growth of education in this Colony has been unostentatious and slow. Like a germinating plant, it at first followed the lines of least resistance, but as it matured it became firmly rooted, and the buffets of conflicting circumstances have only proved beneficial. It is now hardy and weather-proof. As we have seen, the Government began by encouraging missionary efforts. It remained for a missionary to be the prime factor in rousing the Government to a full sense of its responsibility in the matter of taking a lead in the education of the Colony. Dr. James Legge, of Aberdeen, the celebrated Sinologue, Senior Missionary of the London Missionary Society, was at the time chairman of the Government Educational Board, and he was successful in inducing the Government to agree to the foundation of the Government Central School in Gough Street, and to the appointment of Mr. (later Dr.) Frederick Stewart, also of Aberdeen University, to be the first headmaster, combined with which office were the additional duties of Inspector of Schools. Mr. Stewart arrived in 1862. He had many difficulties to cope with, prominent amongst them being the indifference of the Chinese of those days to the advantages of Western education. In a few years, however, he had various Government schools established in sundry villages of the island and at Kowloon, in addition to two more important schools—Government Schools at Wantsai and Saiyingpun. As soon as Dr. Legge saw Mr. Stewart firmly seated in the saddle, he generously recommended to the Government the complete emancipation of the former from the Educational Board, and this was immediately granted. For nineteen years Dr. Stewart remained Inspector of Schools, during which time the number of Government and Grant-in-aid Schools swelled considerably, and the increase in school attendance and the extension of proficiency in English were thoroughly satisfactory. Attacks on the educational system were made during the Governorship of Sir J. Pope-Hennessy. Dr. Stewart first begged to be relieved of the onerous duties of Inspector of Schools, Dr. Eitel being at once appointed to the vacancy. In 1881, Dr. Stewart successfully made application for the post of Police Magistrate. He subsequently became Registrar-General, Acting Colonial Secretary, and, at the time of his death, in 1889, was Colonial Secretary. The Chinese evinced their high appreciation of Dr. Stewart's services by founding a scholarship at Queen's College in his memory. A large coloured window in a transept of St. John's Cathedral permanently records the sentiments of the general public.
Dr. Eitel was Inspector of Schools from 1879 to 1897. Education continued to flourish during his tenure of office, the chief features of which were the impetus given to female education, the removal of religious disabilities in schools, and the reduction in the number of school days annually necessary for the Government grant. The arrival of Sir George Bowen in 1883 was signalised by a burst of educational ardour. Scholarships were granted giving free education at the Central School to boys from the Government District Schools, and an annual Government scholarship of £200 a year for four years was founded to enable Hongkong boys to proceed to England for the further study required for a professional career. To the enterprising courage of Mr. C. J. Bateman was due the starting of the Cambridge Local Examinations in Hongkong. A year or two later Hongkong was made a centre for the Oxford Locals, with Mr. Wright as local secretary, Oxford proving more amenable than Cambridge in granting concessions to Hongkong on account of its great distance from England. The Chinese College of Medicine was inaugurated, and proved an unqualified success. With the exhibition of so much educational energy, a friendly spirit of rivalry was excited amongst the schools of the Colony that continues to the present day with very beneficial results. School sports, which previously had been confined to individual schools, were re-organised and amalgamated into one annual function known as the Hongkong Schools' Sports. Dr. Eitel spent considerable time and energy in the formation of a cadet corps in connection with all the leading schools. One combined and rather imposing general parade was held on the cricket ground, but, like most new ideas in Hongkong, it was doomed to early extinction. To the great grief of all the headmasters concerned Dr. Eitel succeeded during Sir William Robinson's regime in inducing the Government to abolish the Government scholarship to England, and the local free scholarships founded ten years previously. The latter alone have been restored.
On the retirement of Dr. Eitel in 1897, the Hon. Mr. A. W. Brewin (now Registrar-General) was for a brief period Inspector of Schools. He was followed by Mr. E. A. Irving, the present inspector, in 1901. The past six years have shown a great stimulus in education, especially during the short time that Sir Matthew Nathan ruled the Colony. In fact, it would appear just to say that of the three Governors who most bestirred themselves about educational matters—Sir J. Pope-Hennessy, Sir George Bowen, and Sir Matthew Nathan—the efforts of the last are the most likely to provide permanent benefit to the Colony. The school study of hygiene was, it is true, made part of imperial policy by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, but it is no less true that its zealous adoption in Hongkong was due to the late Governor, while the institution of the evening Continuation Classes was His Excellency's own idea. These classes have proved so successful that they have recently been re-christened "Hongkong Technical College," and made a sub-department of the Inspectorate of Schools, with an Advisory Committee, the chairman of which, the Hon. Mr. A. W. Brewin, has done yeoman service during the past eighteen months. Besides being an active member of the League of the Empire, connected with whose agency is visual instruction by lectures and magic lantern exhibitions on the subject of the British Empire, the Inspector of Schools, Mr. Irving, has been particularly successful in promoting in the Government District Schools the improvement of English conversation by the Chinese, and in urging throughout the Colony the acceptance of vernacular instruction on a Western, as contrasted with a Chinese, system.