EDUCATION

Need of Educational Facilities

It is somewhat surprising to find how long it took the residents of the Settlements to make plans for the education of their children.

The Missions had developed schools for Chinese boys and girls and laid the foundation of what afterwards became important and influential institutions, long before anything was done for the education of foreign children. This was largely due to the fact that the early residents had no intention of remaining permanently. They regarded themselves as "exiles" and looked forward to the day when they would have accumulated sufficient wealth to enable them to return to their homelands.

Furthermore, both for climatic and social reasons, Shanghai was not considered a good place for bringing up children, and they were sent home at a very early age for their schooling.

When, however, the period of residence of the foreign community, owing to economic reasons, became more prolonged, the providing of education for the children became increasingly urgent.

The need at first was supplied to a certain extent by Roman Catholic institutions which opened departments for the education of foreign children, St. Francis Xavier's for boys, and St. Joseph's for girls.

St. Francis Xavier's College, which had been founded in Hongkew in 1864, reported in 1893 that 875 scholars had been received up to that date, one-fourth being British or American, and that out of 309 charity boys, 80 British and Americans paid little or nothing, and that in some instances clothing was provided as well as instruction. On this ground it asked and received from the Shanghai Municipal Council a yearly grant of Tls. 1,500. This amount has since been gradually increased.

The attention of the Settlements seems at first to have been directed towards the needs of children of mixed parentage, Eurasians, who were left without means of securing an education.

As far back as 1869, the North-China Herald pointed out the necessity of providing boarding schools for this class, so that the fact of their mixed parentage might not be a handicap to them in competition with pure whites.

School for Eurasian Children

A school for Eurasian children was opened the following year by a Mrs. Bonney in Hongkew, and a year later Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Hanbury provided a 10-roomed house for this purpose. A committee was formed and money was raised for the support of this enterprise.

In 1882 Mr. Hanbury offered to transfer the school to the Municipality on condition that it should be exclusively for Eurasians and be called "The Hanbury School for Eurasians." The Council found it impossible to undertake this responsibility at once, but began to make annual grants.

In 1889 the Eurasian School and a newly founded "Children's Home" were amalgamated as the "Thomas Hanbury School and Children's Home," and the trust deed of the school property was handed over to the Council.

A new building was erected on Boone Road in 1891. In the new scheme the school was to be for Eurasians and other children, and hence it became increasingly cosmopolitan, the pupils being the poor children of many nationalities.

The boys' and girls' departments were carried on in the same building for many years, but as the work grew it became necessary to separate them, and a new building for boys was put up on Haskell Road.

Plans are now on foot for a new building on a more convenient site for the girls' department, which reached a high state of efficiency under Miss E. H. Mayhew before her retirement in 1926.

When this is accomplished the Municipality will have made excellent provision for this class of children.

Schools for Foreign Children

The Freemasons in 1886 took the initiative in providing a school for foreign children, but in a short time encountered financial difficulties. As the school was being run at a loss, it was proposed to hand it over as a private school to Mr. and Mrs. Barnes Dallas, the committee representing the Freemasons retaining some control.

Next the school became the "Shanghai Public School" under the headmastership of Mr. G. Lanning. In 1890 the Ratepayers were called upon to make a grant of TIs. 1,000 to put it on a sounder basis and inasmuch as the number of pupils had grown from 54 to 94, acceded to the request. A few years later Mr. Lanning proposed that the school should be taken over by the Council and become a Public Municipal School.

At the Ratepayers' meeting of 1892, a grant of Tls. 3,000 was made, and later in that same year the Council appointed a school committee.

In 1893 an agreement was signed by the trustees of the Masonic School Fund and the Council, by which the Masonic property was handed over to the Municipality, and the Council agreed in return to give free education to four Masonic children.

The school premises originally were at the corner of Peking and Honan Roads. Later a new building was erected on the corner of Boone and Chapoo Roads, and was ready for occupation in 1895.

>From that time the Council's growing interest in education is evidenced by the increased appropriations for schools, in the successive annual budgets.

At first the school on Boone Road served for both boys and girls, but it soon outgrew its quarters and a well-equipped new school for boys was erected on North Szechuen Road Extension.

With the growth of the Settlement and the removal of residents to the western district, the need of a school for that part of the city became apparent, and hence in 1922 a very fine school for girls and small boys was erected on Yuyuen Road.

The French Municipal Council established two schools, one for Chinese boys on Boulevard de Montigny in 1910, and one for French and other foreign children on Avenue Joffre in 1911.

In addition to the efforts put forth by the Municipalities for the education of foreign children, many private schools have been founded for the same purpose. There are two Cathedral schools founded by the Very Rev. A. J. Walker, former Dean of the English Cathedral, one for boys and one for girls. That for boys has been carried on in the school building on the Cathedral grounds. Recently it received a large bequest from the will of the late Mr. Henry Lester, which will make possible the erection of a large and up-to-date building, and in this way Dean Walker's dream of a British National School will be realized.

The Americans have established a large school for American children on the outskirts of the French Concession on Avenue Petain.

School for Chinese Children

It was not until 1899 that the Shanghai Municipal Council began to do anything for the education of Chinese children living in the International Settlement. In that year a proposal for a public school for Chinese, drawn up by Doctors Timothy Richard, J. C. Ferguson, and F. L. Hawks Pott, was presented to the Council. It was approved and adopted at a meeting of the Ratepayers. According to the plan, the Chinese gentry furnished the land, and the Municipality erected the building. The Chinese community subscribed Tls. 37,000 for this purpose, and the first Public School for Chinese was built in 1904 on Elgin Road. It proved so popular that in succeeding years other schools of a similar character were established by the Municipality.

In 1912 the Council took over complete control of the Ellis Kadoorie School on Carter Road.

In 1916 Mr. C. C. Nieh gave a site on Baikal Road, and the Nieh Chih Kuei School for Chinese was opened. In 1917 the Council assumed responsibility for carrying on the Polytechnic Institute on Kwangse Road.

The history of the Institute is as follows: in 1876, by the initiative of Consul Medhurst, a Polytechnic Institute had been founded in Shanghai largely by Chinese subscriptions.

Its main object was to extend a knowledge of the natural sciences. One of the chief movers in the enterprise was Dr. John Fryer. It did not have, however, a very prosperous career and in 1917 the trustees decided to turn over their property and buildings to the Shanghai Municipal Council on condition that steps would be taken for the establishment of a new school on the same site, in which science subjects were to be taught.

By the building of these schools the Municipality did much to remove the reproach sometimes made, that foreigners were entirely indifferent to the welfare of the Chinese population in whose midst they made their homes.

Mission Schools

It would be impossible in the brief compass of this book to give any detailed account of the many schools and colleges founded in Shanghai under missionary auspices for the benefit of the Chinese.

Among others there are the schools at Siccawei; St. Francis Xavier's College on Nanzing Road, founded in 1864, first under the auspices of the Jesuits and later of the Marist Brothers; St. John's University at Jessfield, founded in 1879 by the American Episcopal Church Mission, the outgrowth of schools begun in Shanghai in 1865-1866; the Aurora University on Avenue Dubail, founded in 1903 by the Roman Catholic Church; Shanghai College at Yangtszepoo, founded in 1906 by the Northern and Southern American Baptist Missions; the Lowne Institute at South Gate, founded in 1850 by the American Presbyterian Mission; Anglo-Chinese School on Range Road, founded by the Church Missionary Society in 1850; Medhurst College on Chaoufoong Road, founded by the London Missionary Society in 1908; Mary Farnham Girls' School at the South Gate, founded by the American Presbyterian Mission in 1861 ; St. Mary's Hall for girls on Brenan Road, founded by the American Episcopal Church Mission in 1881; McTyeire School for girls on Edinburgh Road, founded by the Southern Methodist Mission in 1890; and the Eliza Yates Memorial School for girls on Paoshing Road, founded by the Southern American Baptist Mission in 1897.

The establishments at Siccawei, St. John's University, Shanghai College, St. Mary's Hall, and McTyeire School are among the places of interest pointed out to tourists visiting Shanghai.