Student hails benefits of mother-tongue teaching

Having thrived on teaching in Chinese since the 1980s, Shun Tak Fraternal Association Tam Pak Yu College will be forced to offer three subjects in English from next year.

Principal Ho Ki-to said the school's teachers and students were frustrated by the government's change of policy on the language of instruction.

'As more and more schools will offer English classes under the new policy, we have to water down our blanket mother-tongue policy and offer mathematics, computer studies and science for junior classes [in English] next year,' he said.

Set up in 1980, the Tuen Mun school originally taught in English but decided to switch to Cantonese in phases from 1986.

'When we made the switch, we decided we would rather forgo the elite-school status and face the discrimination from parents [when they choose schools for their children] than impose English learning on students,' he said.

'Mother-tongue teaching makes for fabulous lessons where students ask questions and engage in lively discussions with teachers. They can also understand the subject matter better in their own language ... But for the sake of enrolment, we won't be able to continue our blanket mother-tongue policy in future.'

Mr Ho said a comparison of past exam results bore out the wisdom of adopting mother-tongue teaching.