At a time when all sectors of the community need to pull together to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness by raising the quality of school education, it is regrettable that the education authorities and teachers have failed to reconcile their differences over the benchmarking of English teachers.
Notwithstanding changes to the scheme exempting more teachers from passing a proficiency assessment, the Professional Teachers' Union has vowed to continue its fight against its introduction. They insist that the test is an insult to serving English teachers and amounts to stripping those who fail of their teaching permits. Instead, they argue that teachers should be given continuous training to achieve the required level of competency.
The union's stubborn stance is baffling. Assessment is an integral part of training, so all teachers who go through a language training programme will have to be tested eventually.
But why bar those teachers with good English skills from taking a test to prove their competency when they will have to go to the trouble of going through a training course they do not need? It is also unfortunate that the union cannot see the test positively as a mark of recognition for competent teachers who have so far been unfairly blamed for the declining English skills of young people.
Admittedly, due to years of neglect in the past, many serving teachers with no formal training in language teaching have been allowed to teach English. The problem is particularly serious in primary schools where almost every teacher is asked to teach some English classes to suit the timetable. These teachers understandably feel aggrieved that their jobs may now be on the line if they fail the benchmark test.
But if they are conscientious teachers, they should have tried to enhance their English skills when they were assigned such duties. Even now, they will still have five years to train up and reach the required standards. Of course, school chiefs should see to it that those who want to stop teaching English are assigned other duties and are not unfairly dismissed.