Government's language policy has proved to be disastrous

Over the last 10 years we have witnessed innumerable changes of government policies.

Often policies implemented have had to be scrapped since they had not been thoroughly investigated or thought through.

Sometimes the government would have a change of heart, because it was worried about its popularity ratings rather than evaluating whether or not the strategy was feasible. Sometimes I have had to chuckle at what has become a form of governing that has been a case of one step forward, two steps back. We have then watched as our weak and ineffectual officials tried to explain yet another blunder. This time, their flip-flop has been no laughing matter.

I am referring to the language policy for our schools, which is so important because it affects tens of thousands of our youngsters.

The mother-tongue policy for medium of instruction was introduced, because the Hong Kong administration was trying to second-guess the central government. It was often a case of trying to prove its loyalty, solidarity and patriotism. In fact, in the case of mother-tongue teaching this was a serious miscalculation as Beijing acted pragmatically by encouraging the study of English on the mainland. It takes years to develop proficiency in a language.

By introducing mother tongue education [in some schools in Hong Kong], the SAR government has put a whole generation of youngsters at disadvantage when they enter the job market.