CHINESE MODERN EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 710, 8 January 1910, Page 14

CHINESE MODERN EDUCATION

GETTING TO THE TOPMOST BTO3G. Mr. Loo Yet, the Chinese professor selected to establish a school in Sydney loi the purpose of instructing the ohilcu ° residents in the language or the land of their parents, and also in unnese classics, arrived in bydney on December 29 The professor, who is 82 years of age, and a native of the province of Kwaaff •lung, has had considerable experience a< a teacher. For three ~ears he was prinoipal of the Chinese school at Samarang, an institution which has a duly attendance of 300 pupils. There was a staff of eight assistants. Thaprofessor stated to a representative of "Tie Daily Talegraph" that the children made wonderful progress in acquiring a knowledge of their lost mother-tongue. While at Singapore Hγ. Loo Yet had 150 pupila. and he was pleased to say that 20 of thea pasavi the necessary examination to admit them to the Chinese college at Nan. Lan, an institution established by the Chinese Government for the pronusuix and advanced youths of China. "It is tho hope of all parents m China," the professor weti on to eaj; that their eons may achieve and climb to the top of the nation's social ladder by what is known m China as the great examination,' which, properly speaking, is the -only way for everyone in , China to advance himself out of « state of/obscurity into a notaUo asd prominent 1 position. In China there' tie titles as you have in 'Western .tiiounlnes— the kung, pa, ere,-and nan, which-are synonymous with duke, marqps, cad, viscount, and baton. After these titles oamo,the different grades of the people—sze Oagmfymg a seholat nan (a husbandman), kung (aa arteanX and shang (a>trader,). Of all classes the Eze is the most powerful. This is-tie olass from which pubbo servants ' am drawn. It is also the claes that l l«uJs public opTuon, and it has the whole question of education m its hands. "Wee* ' ternVkarning has eprsid throughout'tis whole Empire, and today there is not » singlo one of the 18' provinces which » not acquiring Western knowledge, . The thirst for r this knowledge is e>'great that China is now sending her'young mea abroad, and they" all must be examined in tho following subjects, and pass l as competent, before being accepted.—English literature' and 1 composition, GreeS I history (up to the death of Alexander) or Eomao history (to the accession of Commodns), English history 'or American history, Greek or Latm (saffi. cleat to gain admission to an Amene&a college of high Standing), French or Garman, to enable' the student to read o> dinary prose in either, "and to'translate at sight short passages in either hinguage into English, and vice versa, ulsebraTa quadratics, plane geometry, sold geometry, plane trigonometry, and elementary physics' For those Intending to -tabs up a scientific course at once, without going through a collegiate 1 -course/ their examination is similar to what described, with tho following modifications—ln history, only modem history (that of England and the United State is 'compulsory); ' the v requirements a Latin or Greek are much lees, in algebra, the examination is to the J hinomial theorem, in trigonometry, logarithms are included; in v chemistry and physics mon than an elementary knowledge is required. It 'is probable that for the convenience of those who have never studied Latin , or Greek, a knowledge of the Chinese classics will be accepted 'as '4 substitute."