( 16 ) 
(b). Commercial Classes. 
The 1902 Commission found that shorthand and 
commercial classes had failed because the great 
demand for clerks attracted boys away from school, 
even before they had passed the Vlth Standard. It 
was of opinion that if Raffles Institution and the 
Penang Free School were taken over by Government, 
a Commercial Class should be established at each 
of those schools with a trained master, and it hoped 
that “ merchants will find the advantage of taking 
boys who have been through the course, and will 
pay larger salaries than they do to badly educated 
boys from the lower standards.” In accordance 
with its suggestion commercial scholarships were 
offered at Raffles Institution as an experiment. In 
1904 the local Chamber of Commerce arranged an 
annual examination and offered prizes. But by 1907 
commercial classes had died out in Penang and sur- 
vived only at Raffles Institution and St. Joseph’s 
Institution in Singapore where they did not attract 
the best students. In 1910 the rubber industry led 
to an increased demand for clerks, however poorly 
qualified, and in 1913 the annual report of the 
Education Department alludes to an advertisement 
for 30 boys who had passed Standard IV! In 1913 
the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce examined 
the pupils in the commercial classes of Singapore 
and Penang. Since 1916 pupils have taken the 
examination of the London Chamber of Commerce, 
(except in 1918 when the papers were lost at sea 
through enemy action). Raffles Institution now 
gives full courses in commercial subjects, the work 
is efficient and there is a strong demand from firms 
for pupils from the classes. No student is allowed 
to take the course unless he has reached the level 
