Tributes to a Splendid Institution at the Annual Speech Day The annual speech day of the Public School for Chinese was held last Friday afternoon. The Rev. Dr. MacGillivray presided and among those present were Mr. Chang Nieh-yun, a member of the Chinese Educational Committee, Mr.
Sakuragi, Municipal Councillor, and members of the teaching staffs of other Chinese schools in the Settlement. The Rayner Memorial prize was presented by the acting Head Master, Mr. T. G. Baillie, B.8¢., to Koo Sze-chang. No fewer than 40 prizes for class work during the school year were distributed to successful scholars.
Special praise was bestowed by visitors on the excellent English of the junior choir, conducted by Mrs. ©. Smith and Miss D. E. James and composed of boys of from six to eight years of age, who sang. three nursery rhymes. Recitations, in English and Mandarin, given by two seniors, Sich Chi-tsai and Ma Char-sing were also warmly received.
The boys listened intently to a Jong address in Chinese delivered by Dr. MacGillivray, Chairman of the Chinese Educational Committee.
Mr. T. G.. Baillie said The school is.as popular as ever, for we have to turn away many applicants for admission at the commencement of each term. These, I may say, ate recommended to go to the other municipal schools for Chinese. During the las—summer vacation, classes in English were held at the school under Messrs. Lobb and Huang, and these proved to be very popular. The classes were a great help, for most of the new boys knew some English on admittance, and preference was given to such boys. In fact, we now insist on applicants for admission being able to read simple words. The health of the pupils has been remarkably good, the average attendance for the year being 97 per cent.
For the benefit of those unacquainted with the work of this school, I may state that the school is divided into two departments, English and Chinese, with a separate staff/ of teachers for each. Each. pupli, on admission, is examined and placed in one class for English and in another for Chinese, the two not necessarily being in the same grade. The total student body is divided into two sections, "A" and "B." A boy in! section "A" studies. English on; Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday mornings, and Chinese on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday afternoons, while'a boy in section "'B" studies Chinese on Mondays, Wednesdays and friday mornings, and English on the other days of the week. Thus each pupli spends two and a half days per week in each department.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.