AMONG ALL THE education reforms, none is more contentious than how to allocate places in secondary schools and determine the language of instruction. The model adopted, to be recommended in the coming months, will have a far-reaching impact on the future of Hong Kong primary and secondary schools.
The reform began in 2000, when the government accepted the advice of the Education Commission to scrap the Academic Aptitude Test (AAT) as the means for grading students and allocating places. Under the old system, children drilled for months, if not years, to win places in top schools.
This was condemned by the commission as being an uncreative approach to learning in primary schools, and for being unfair, particularly for late developers. There was also a gender problem because boys and girls develop at different paces; the then Education Department processed their scores separately, falling foul of the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Since 2000, students have been divided into ability bands according to their school results, adjusted to take into variations in school quality. Meanwhile, the number of bands was reduced from five to three, increasing the range of student abilities in schools and cutting the stigma of the lowest band.
A working group, headed by Michael Tien Puk-sun, now has the task of recommending the new model. The first issue - of allocation - involves the decision of whether to select or not, and if we are to select, how. It has parallels with the major school reform in England and Wales in the 1960s, when the two-tier grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced by a new breed of comprehensives.
Language - or the medium of instruction - is closely linked to allocation, and is what complicates the selection debate in Hong Kong. It is generally accepted that if children are to be taught in English they must have the skills to use it across all subjects, implying some form of selection.