CHINA AND "EDUCATIONAL REFORM."

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11524, 5 March 1903, Page 6

CHINA AND "EDUCATIONAL REFORM."

TSie disquieting rumours of another Boxer rising in China are a (reminder of the strength of the anti-foreign element among the Chinese—an element which, constitutes the giea f ,ast obstacle to progress and reform in the Far East. It ia not the lower classes only, sunk as they are in ignorance and superstition, who nourish, these violent feelings of 'hostility towards a civilisation other than their own, and a religion whose advocates they regard as so many "foreign devils." The situation would be less discouraging were there any sincere dfesLre for reform among the governing classes. It is tihe Mandarins, as a class, who. appear to 'be tihe guiding spirits dn thiese periodical revolts against Western methods and ideas. As they clearly realise, the enlightenment of the masses would be a deathblow to their vested! interests, acquired and maintained by tyranny and corruption. It is not lpurprising, therefore, to learn that tihe anti-foreign policy is just as deliberate in the educational administration of the country as in matters commercial and political, and that the reforms introduced by tihe Emperor some time ago haxe met with opposition and contumacy at -the hands of the official classy Some idea, of the difficulties wbic'h have to be encountered! by reformers in Ghana may be gained from a review of tlie*position of the new educational system, written by the Rev. Gilbert Walshe, Recording Secretary of tihe Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese at Shangiliai, and published recently by "The Times." It is not a hopeful picture that Mr. Walehe gives of the progress made since the Emperor'a reforms were introduced in 1901. " It would," lie declares, "be an entire ntfe- " conception of the wirole to sup- " pose that thc\re is any intention on the " part of tihie Chinese to revise their system " of education by the eubstitution of West"em for Chinese methods." The Imperial edicts, from which so much was hoped, have apparently failed to> meet the needs of the situation. Unfortunately, they leftt the new scheme of education vague and ambiguous, and the local officials have in most cases twisted the instructions to suit their own ends, and defeat the good intentions of the Emperor. For example, one Imperial edict dsecreed that Universities should be established in each province, colleges in each prefecture, and echoole in each district; but the Chinese language does not differentiate between singular and plural, and the officials, anxious to restrict the new schools of Western learning, read in the edict an order to establish merely one University in each province, one College in each prefecture, and one school in «ach distinct. Seemg that some of the smallest "districts" contain as many as 50,000 scholars, one school was ridiculously inadequate to meet requirements. The Emperor's edicts gave no suggestion as to the ourriculum to be adopted, and made no adequate provision for the financial maintenance of the schools. The result was that the scheme was in many districts ignored. In others the officials merely gave new names to tho exieting Chinese Colleges, calling them "Chinese and Weetern Halls of Learning," and engaged a few incompetent natives to teach English, French, a smattering of science, and so forth. In a majority of these institutions, £be Mandarins have used the new professorships as a means of providing berths for poor relations. One charity school which has been converted into a j Government "college" is facetiously known j in the district as "The Old Men's Home," because every one of the fifteen new "Proi feseora" is over sixty years of age. Some of the new teachers are openly anti-foreign, ; 1 as at the Su-cban Provincial College, where the principal forbids the use of such terms i 39 "the five continents," "fche globe," and " international law," presumably because they might engender a dangerous belief in | the) existence of otlher continents than China, and other rights than those of the Chinese. The fixed determination of the governing classes to exclude Christian stu- | dents from all official positions is another aeiious obstacle to tihe new reform, and it ia now proposed to dispense with the ear-

vices of foreign missionaries. The officials are disinclined, moreover, to spend money on education, «s there- is tittle scope in this direction for their "squeezing" talents. Altogether the Rev. ifr. Walsho {whose opinions the Shanghai correspondent of "The Times" substantiates), believes that the so-called "educational reform" i 8 in a parlous condition at the present time, and "there appears to be little ground for "hope thai, situation will improve." The threatened recrudescence of Boxerism is a far from encouraging factor in the situation.