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Extra classes doing the trick

I refer to your editorial of April 11, headlined, 'Testing the teachers'.

People are under the wrong impression that our students' English standard is the sole responsibility of English teachers. We forget that in English-medium schools, many other subjects are taught in English. Many teachers in these schools have a poor command of English. A lot of harm is being done to the students who are, for most of the time at school, exposed to the poor English speakers. The efforts of English teachers are often offset by bad speaking habits (for example, inaccurate pronunciation, broken, grammatically incorrect English) demonstrated by these teachers.

If we are to raise the English standard of our students, English teachers, of course, must be required to pass strict benchmark tests. But teachers of other subjects in English-medium schools should also be asked to pass a certain kind of language benchmark assessment.

It takes wisdom to recognise our own shortcomings and do something about them. At Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Secondary School, we are doing something very few schools do - tapping the resource of our teacher employed under the Native English-speaking teacher (NET) scheme, who is an experienced English teacher of adults. She conducts an English proficiency course after school hours for those on our staff who wish to upgrade their English proficiency. It is proving to be very successful and we have reduced the NET teacher's normal timetable to compensate her for working after school hours.

We don't pretend what we are doing will radically change the pathetic picture of the unsatisfactory English standard of many teachers of English-medium subjects. But at least our teachers admit their weaknesses and are willing to do something to improve themselves.

BENEDICT NG LEONG-CHUEN Principal Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Secondary School

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