Source:
https://scmp.com/article/73946/teaching-medium-will-not-be-forced

Teaching medium will not be forced

PARENTS will be encouraged rather than forced to allow their children to be taught in Chinese, Governor Chris Patten told legislators yesterday.

He rejected a suggestion that the Government be held responsible for parents' preference for English over Chinese, saying the most crucial thing was to have young people taught in the most appropriate medium.

''What we don't want is for young people to be taught in Chinglish rather than either English or Chinese and that's what we are trying to avoid at the moment,'' Mr Patten said.

But a number of legislators accused the Government of not rendering full support to Chinese as the medium of instruction.

''We cannot see the Governor leading people up that road. We in fact see the Government following the blind choice of parents who insist that their children should receive education in English when the children themselves are not equipped to do so,'' Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee said.