Mother-tongue publicity 'selective and biased'

Official publicity for mother-tongue education has outraged parents and students, who said it was selective and biased.

More than $1 million was spent on the publicity, which included pamphlets, booklets, television, radio and MTR posters.

But Chan Yick-man, chairman of the Parent Teacher Association at Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Secondary School, said the material was one-sided and discriminatory.

A 12-page pamphlet, distributed to public and primary school students and their parents, made a comparison between mother-tongue and English medium instruction.

It said more Form One students, who are taught in English, day-dreamed compared with Primary Six pupils taught in Chinese.

'Day-dreaming is very common among students. It's unfair to link it with English teaching without concrete research and statistics,' Mr Chan said.