The Chief Executive's call for exit language tests for tertiary graduates has met with a mixed response from academics, with one claiming it was simply a short-sighted reaction to pacify public concerns.
The Education and Manpower Bureau will allocate $87.5 million to help higher- education institutions develop courses in English, written Cantonese and Putonghua.
Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, the Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU), said implementing an exit language test as a means of combatting falling language standards among tertiary students was the wrong way to tackle the problem.
'Our culture is too exam- oriented,' he said. 'Setting an exit test will only make students study for the examination.' Professor Li said any such test should be a means of stimulating student interest in languages.
'A test is imposed to help students, not to bring troubles to them,' he said.
'The long-term solution is to develop students' interest and learning motivation for languages and encourage them to use English in daily life.