Q Is the decline in English-language performance related to the mother-tongue policy?
Recently Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, secretary for education and manpower, said it would be too hasty to use only one year of Hong Kong A-Level results to back a conclusion that falling English standards are a reflection of a failing mother-tongue education system.
But he was more than ready to jump on the primary schools that failed to recruit 23 or more pupils in one year, refusing their plea to convert to private schools and telling them instead to think about why they had not been able to attract pupils.
The use of the term 'mother-tongue' education is seriously flawed. To succeed in Hong Kong, everyone, regardless of their race, should have the opportunity to be educated equally well in English and Chinese.
The past two decades have seen many of our friends and relatives migrating to English-speaking countries. Imagine if they were told their children could only attend Cantonese-medium schools because of their mother tongue and that they would not be eligible to attend mainstream English-speaking schools.
Such an outrageous hypothetical proposition is a reality in today's Hong Kong for some ethnic minorities that want greater exposure to an education in Cantonese, and for some local Chinese who want more exposure to the English language.