A Hong Kong education for all
Many thanks to Philip Yeung and his article headlined 'Why civil servants are sitting pretty' (December 4) and to Nigel Huckstep for the letter 'Examining educational subsidies' (December 6).
When one looks at the $900 million spent this year on educating the sons and daughters of our civil servants, and providing the travel expenses around the world for their parents to visit them, the money spent on the special allowance paid to native English-speaking teachers - working in almost every school and helping students develop into citizens who can turn Hong Kong into a truly international city - does not seem too exorbitant.
I cannot help but wonder how many of the civil servants who determine Hong Kong's education policy leave their children in Hong Kong to go through the system they themselves create. And how many of the teachers in government schools show the same confidence in the system which they are devoting their lives to by leaving their own children here?
If all children of the above-mentioned people went to school in Hong Kong, it would save the government nearly $1 billion.
Should not all civil servants be 'encouraged' to educate their children at home - as do most people in Hong Kong - by a government intent on showing the world that it has a world-class education system well equipped to educate all its sons and daughters, not just those who can afford to go overseas at the expense of the local taxpayer?
CRAIG BOSWELL, Aberdeen
SIMON ROSS, Sha Tin
