CHAPTER 1 Origin
Introduction
The establishment of Belilios Public School (formerly the Government Central School for Girls) in 1890 was an important landmark in the history of education in Hong Kong. It signified the Colonial Government's determination to provide English education for girls despite the many difficulties and challenges they faced in the late 19th century. The persistent and unwavering pursuit of what Dr. Eitel, the Inspector of Schools at that time, believed resulted in the founding of the "Government Central School for Girls".
On 5th July 1889, a proposal for setting up an English Girls' School was formally presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor Sir Des Voeux through Dr. E.J. Eitel, M.A., Ph.D. of the Education Department.1 Dr. Eitel explained the rationale and scheme for setting up a Government Girls' school.
Rationale
Aim
It was clearly stated in the proposal that the aim of establishing a Government-run Girls' School was to give an English education to girls of all classes – whether Chinese, Indian, Eurasian or European, on the same principles as the Government Central School (for boys). It was proposed to start such a School in March 1889.
English education for Girls was useless
The mass of the population (the Chinese) whilst generally appreciating the value of a scholarly education in the case of their boys, were yet to a great extent skeptics as to the good that their daughters could get by attending school.
The most common argument was that they saw English education for girls in their case not called for and useless. It was a very common phenomenon in Chinese society in the 1890s who had never heard English spoken within their families. They regarded a foreign education as useless for them. Besides, the "Mui Tsai" ( 妹仔) system2 was still common in traditional Chinese families and the value of girls was mainly in serving at home or as virtual slaves in the families of rich merchants. Traditional parents might think that "They do not want it … and if they get it, they are no longer better off for it." Thus, it was natural for people to question on the demand for an English Education for girls in Hong Kong.
Concubinage
The most significant and the strongest argument against the offering of an English Girls' School was that many Chinese and Eurasians thought that such a provision would be a tool to foster a local system of concubinage in the Colony. Many girls after receiving an English education would become the concubines of foreigners. Unfortunately, this argument was backed by the Ladies' Committee under the leadership of the late Bishop Smith who started the Diocesan Female Training School (English) in 1862. He had had to close the School in 1865 because almost every girl after receiving English Education in their School became the kept mistress of a foreigner.
A Gratuitous Education
Nevertheless the Government has made unceasing efforts, particularly through the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, which came into effect in 1873, to enlarge and improve from year to year the opportunities offered to the girls a gratuitous education (including industrial needlework teaching). Such efforts had good effect with the Chinese who, with all their national prejudices against education for girls, were too shrewd to reject advantages offered free of expense. The success in the promotion of education for girls in Hong Kong in the late 19th century was shown by the data in the following table.
1 "Girls' School" Sessional Paper (1889) No.18/89
2 Mui Tsai means "little sister" in Cantonese, describes young Chinese women who worked as domestic slaves in China. The young women were typically from poor families, and sold at a young age, under the condition that they be freed through marriage when older. (Wikipedia)
Proportion of Boys and Girls under instruction in Schools subject to the supervision of the Education Department
|
Year
|
Population
|
Scholars under instruction
|
Total of Percentage of Scholars
|
Percentage of Scholars being Girls
|
|
|
|
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
|
|
|
1851
|
32983
|
193
|
26
|
219
|
11.87
|
|
1861
|
119,321
|
1017
|
251
|
1268
|
19.79
|
|
1871
|
124,198 2230
|
476
|
2706
|
17.59
|
|
|
1873
(Commencement of the implementation of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme) |
121,985 1976
|
304
|
2280
|
13.33
|
|
|
1882
|
166,433
|
3941
|
1241
|
5182
|
23.94
|
|
1889
|
194,482
|
4991
|
2116
|
7107
|
29.77
|
- Eitel wrote in his Annual Report for the Year 1888, "for there was a vast majority of the children in Hong Kong who remained uneducated (8402 in number) were girls. Education for girls as a whole was still a very backward condition in the Colony." 3
He further stated that "There is absolutely no provision made by private efforts nor by the Government for offering Chinese or other girls CHEAP, NON-SECTARIAN, ENGLISH or ANGLO-CHINESE EDUCATION. If the desire of the Government is to promote in the Colony an Anglo-Chinese education within the reach of all, we ought not to confine the efforts of the Government to giving to boys only an English or Anglo-Chinese education but offer the same advantages, on the same conditions, to the girls who will be the MOTHERS OF FUTURE GENERATIONS."
Who were the expected students?
Since the Colonial Government had already provided Chinese education for local Chinese, and an English education for a small group of boys in the Government Central School, then it was also reasonable for the Government to offer an English education for "the daughters of loyal English and Indian subjects of Her Majesty."
According to the proposal, the expected students would come from the classes of people who had sent their boys to the Government Central School for Boys. So, they might be the sisters of the approximately 600 boys attending the Government Central School in 1889. It was also expected that there would be 90% Chinese, 4% European, 3% Indian and another 3% of Eurasians. Dr. Eitel also proposed to admit those Chinese girls who had been attending ordinary Chinese schools for two or three years to transfer to study in an English school.
- EJ Eitel was not alone in his enthusiasm for promoting women's education in Hong Kong. His wife, Mary Anne Winifred Eaton, whom he married in 1866, was the Hong Kong representative of the Female Education Society. The ‘Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East' (to give it its full name) was founded on 25 July 1834. It had its origins in an appeal for women missionaries to work amongst Chinese women made by an American missionary, Mr David Abeel, during a visit to England in 1834. Missionary work in China had been successful in converting men, but attracted hardly any women. Missionaries became concerned that Chinese Christian men would not be able to find Christian wives, leaving in doubt the faith of any children they had. 4
- Eitel's rebuttal to … "English education for Girls was useless…"
- Eitel believed that even though the demand for such English education was not great at the time, there would be an increasing demand for it as times went by. He admitted that there were considerable numbers of Chinese girls and Chinese parents who were reluctant to receive English education especially if their girls might not have the need to earn money as their boys do. Yet, he still had confidence that the future educational history of the Colony would prove that more and more Chinese girls and parents would change their minds and would go for such education willingly.
- Eitel further argued that the rise of concubinage was a social trend caused by many factors but not by English Education. As a matter of fact, concubinage had all along flourished in Hong Kong and would no doubt continue to flourish, whether Chinese girls received English or Chinese education or no education at all. So, even without the provision of English education for girls, concubinage would still continue. Besides, there was a new trend that Japanese girls instead of Chinese girls were finding favour as concubines of foreigners.
3 "Government Notification - No. 145 Annual Report of the Inspector of Schools, for the year 1888" The Hong Kong Government Gazette (30th March 1889).
4 "Ricci Roundtable on the history of Chistianity in China"
http://ricci.rt.usfca.edu/biography/view.aspx?biographyID=38
- Eitel believed that Chinese people were similar to Indian people in a way that they were ready to accept change if they were assured of the beneficial tendency of the provision of English education for girls. British India had set a successful model in promoting English education for girls since 1854. In the Charter of Education in India, it was stated that "English is to be taught wherever there is a demand for it, but it is not to be substituted for the vernacular languages of the country."5 "Female education was treated as a legitimate charge alike on Local, on Municipal and on Provisional Funds, and received special encouragement, that liberal aid be offered for the establishment, in suitable localities, of Girls' Schools in which English should be taught in addition to the vernacular." 6
Gradually, there were a number of missionary girls' schools in Hong Kong which had already stimulated change in the perception of Chinese parents about educating their daughters. They began to regard it as the right and proper thing that every Chinese mother who could afford to provide decent clothing and who could spare the domestic services of their children, should send their girls to a Grant-in-Aid or Government School for three or four years at least, to learn reading and writing in Chinese and plain sewing and to be trained in habits of order and discipline. So, Chinese parents were already more ready to send their daughters to school.
Finally, Dr. Eitel believed that there were a lot of benefits apart from money value of English education to Chinese girls. Firstly, education for girls gave girls a school education, as a necessary part of their training for life. Education for girls not only enhanced the money-making capabilities of women but also improved the competitiveness of women in contemporary high-pressure life. Secondly, education for girls could upgrade the intellectual development of Chinese girls – especially if it is conducted in the form of an English education. Thirdly, through formal schooling, Chinese girls would receive training and discipline in the habit of truthfulness, uprightness, womanliness and the mutual subordination of individual will and interest to the demands of the common good. Finally, the promotion of education for girls could improve the social and political status of women in the long run.
About Dr. Eitel, Ernest John
Ernest John Eitel was born on 13 February 1838 at Württemberg, in Germany. He received education at Tubingen University (Ph.D.).
He served in an Evangelical State Church in Württemberg as pastor. Adopting a Chinese name ( 歐德理), he later came to Liang, Xin'an district in Guangdong, China under the Basel Mission. In April 1865 he was transferred to the London Missionary Society at Guangzhou to take charge of the Boluo Mission and the Hakka villages outside Guangzhou. In January 1870 he moved to Hong Kong, while still having charge of the Bolo Mission. In 1875 he became Director of Chinese Studies. In April 1879 he resigned from the London Missionary Society.
He then became Inspector of Schools in Hong Kong and later Chinese Secretary to Sir John Pope Hennessy. In 1866 he married Mary Anne Winifred Eaton of the Female Education Society. He died in Adelaide, Australia, in 1908.
Eitel published his Cantonese dictionary, Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect in 1877. It was based on a Cantonese glossary dictionary Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect written in 1856 by Samuel Wells Williams, expanding with the work of James Legge and Kangxi Dictionary. His publication was intended to standardize the pronunciation of Cantonese.
Scheme
Location and Campus
It was suggested that the location of a Government English girls' school must be in the central part of the town because Chinese girls could not be induced to go to school if the building were situated in an out-of-the-way locality. This reflected the determination of the Government to eliminate all possible hindrances to the establishment of such schools.
5 "Education Dispatch of India" (1854) Indian Education Commission
6 "Indian Education-Commission Resolution 682", No.1 & No.9 1854
For the choice of campus, it was stated that a temporary one would be rented and there was a plan to erect a school building later on. There were pre-requisites for the future campus that it must be of the European style of architecture for essential sanitary reasons and that it might also afford quarters for the Headmistress and an Assistant Mistress.
Staffing and Duties
The school should have three teachers. The Headmistress must be appointed from England under the approval of the Secretary of State. She must be a bachelor ranged from 22 to 28 years old. She should be a trained, certificated, unmarried English lady with experience in teaching, organizing or superintending elementary girls' schools. Besides, she needed to possess superior knowledge of needlework and enjoyed good health. This arrangement was similar to the selection of the Headmaster for the Central School for Boys. In order to assist the Headmistress, an Assistant Mistress and a Pupil Teacher should also be employed.
The duties of the above three staff were clearly defined. The Headmistress was responsible for organizing the School, instructing the upper classes of the English Division in the subjects of an ordinary English middle class school and to superintend the teaching of the Assistant Mistress and the Pupil Teacher in the lower classes of the English Division and the Chinese Division. Further, the Headmistress also needed to serve the Inspector of Schools in the annual examinations of the needlework done in the Grant-in-Aid Schools of the Colony.
Budget for the First Year
Estimated income:
It was expected that $1 school fee (per month) would be collected from at least 50 students in the English Division for the first 10 months and so there would be at least $400 income.