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CHAPTER IIITHE GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS OF CHINA.under the supervision of the Government, isGENERAL system of schools for the whole Empire,of such recent date that available information asto what has been already accomplished is limited inscope and frequently lacking in detail. After the establishment of the Board of Education in 1905 there wasworked out, largely under the direction of Their Excellencies, Sun Chia-nai and Chang Chih-tung, a comprehensive scheme, which included the establishment of aCentral University in Peking, affiliated Colleges, Technical and Normal Schools in each Provincial Capital,High Schools in each Prefectural city, and PrimarySchools in each Departmental city and village. This isa bare outline of a plan which contemplated as its finaloutcome compulsory education in Primary Schools ofall boys and girls, and provision for the more promisingstudents to be able to advance, through higher schools,to a normal, technical or university education. In orderto give uniformity to these schools, an elaborate Courseof Study was laid out as a general guide in the formation of a completely articulated system of national education. The whole scheme, including regulations, coursesof study, suggestions as to the method of establishingschools, etc., etc., was embodied in a large tome, prepared by H. E. Chang Chih-tung, and authorized byImperial Edict. A careful perusal of these volumesshows that the underlying principle of their compilationwas the desire to maintain and provide for thoroughinstruction in the classical and historical literature ofChina, thus enabling the new system of education toattach itself, without too great a wrench, to the earlier

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS. 39system which was centred around the Civil Service Examinations. This principle was unquestionably a wiseone, judged by the standard of educational usefulnessin national life, but entailed a consequent difficulty indelaying the rapid development of the new form of universal education. If it had been deemed expedient tocreate, without regard to the past history of educationin China, a complete system of national education, thework would have been comparatively simple, but withthe large demand throughout the nation for men thoroughly trained in the literature of their country, no planseemed feasible which did not make ample provision fora union of the new with the old. Such provision maybe considered more or less tentative, but neglect to makesuch provision would have been revolutionary.Under the former system of China the Governmentmade no provision for instruction, but confined itself tothe single task of examining pupils who presented themselves as candidates for degrees. Instruction was obtainedthrough private tutors, or in schools opened by teachers on their own responsibility. There were no supervision of existing schools, no fixed courses of study, notext-books, and no specified qualification for teachers.Each small school was a law to itself, and each teacherused such books and methods as were familiar to him.The aim of the system was to produce men of parts whowould stand high in the examinations for degrees, andthose teachers were considered the best in their profession who had the largest number of successful candidates. In this respect it differed wholly from the aim ofthe new system, which has for its goal universal education. The difficulty of joining together two systemswith such distinctly different aims must be appreciatedand understood by those who desire to know the presentstatus of government education in China. Literatureand literary pursuits have always been fostered in China,but school instruction remained in the hands of privateindividuals unfettered by any regulation of the Govern-

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS. 39system which was centred around the Civil Service Examinations. This principle was unquestionably a wiseone, judged by the standard of educational usefulnessin national life, but entailed a consequent difficulty indelaying the rapid development of the new form of universal education. If it had been deemed expedient tocreate, without regard to the past history of educationin China, a complete system of national education, thework would have been comparatively simple, but withthe large demand throughout the nation for men thoroughly trained in the literature of their country, no planseemed feasible which did not make ample provision fora union of the new with the old. Such provision maybe considered more or less tentative, but neglect to makesuch provision would have been revolutionary.Under the former system of China the Governmentmade no provision for instruction, but confined itself tothe single task of examining pupils who presented themselves as candidates for degrees. Instruction was obtainedthrough private tutors, or in schools opened by teachers on their own responsibility. There were no supervision of existing schools, no fixed courses of study, notext-books, and no specified qualification for teachers.Each small school was a law to itself, and each teacherused such books and methods as were familiar to him.The aim of the system was to produce men of parts whowould stand high in the examinations for degrees, andthose teachers were considered the best in their profession who had the largest number of successful candidates. In this respect it differed wholly from the aim ofthe new system, which has for its goal universal education. The difficulty of joining together two systemswith such distinctly different aims must be appreciatedand understood by those who desire to know the presentstatus of government education in China. Literatureand literary pursuits have always been fostered in China,but school instruction remained in the hands of privateindividuals unfettered by any regulation of the Govern-

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