However, they welcomed a commitment by the Education and Manpower Bureau to produce a draft supplementary guide on the teaching of Chinese to second-language students by the end of the year - even though they said this was a 'far cry' from the alternative curriculum the bureau had been asked to produce.

Minorities groups have long been pushing for an alternative Chinese curriculum for local schools, and last year gained the unanimous support of the Legislative Council's education panel.

However, bureau officials say it is unnecessary as the central curriculum framework is 'general enough to be applicable to all learners, irrespective of whether they are native Chinese speakers'.

Addressing a meeting of the panel yesterday, Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said there was no precedent for an alternative curriculum for non-native-speaking students in other Chinese communities, such as the mainland, Taiwan or Singapore.

However, the chairman of the education panel, Tsang Yok-sing, said he doubted that was the case. 'What happens to Tibetan students and other minorities?' he asked. 'Do Tibetan students learn Chinese the same way ethnically Chinese students learn?'

But Ms Linn conceded that the proposed supplementary guide, though not compulsory, was essential. 'You can regard it as a second curriculum,' she said. 'I don't think we should get bogged down by the name we use.'

Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung said: 'What you are proposing here is a far cry from what we asked for,' adding that the curriculum guide would be 'useless' if students were unable to gain a widely recognised qualification at the end.

This year, students from minorities will be able to take the British GCSE Chinese exam as an alternative to the HKCEE, but bureau officials have yet to get agreement from universities to recognise the qualification for admission purposes.

Panel deputy chairman Yeung Sum said the government's approach was characterised by 'backward thinking'.

'Ethnic minorities should not be given second-class opportunities,' he said. 'Universities should send a clear message that in Hong Kong society there is ethnic equality.'

The government needed to do likewise and set a positive example by accepting people with the qualification into the civil service, he said.

Education legislator Cheung Man-kwong said the government needed to 'rectify historical errors' by setting aside university places for students from minority groups, likening it to the policy previously used in the United States.

'Without Chinese, these students cannot advance up the ladder anywhere in the world,' he said. 'If we do not give them equal opportunities, we are setting a time bomb for our future.'