I couldn't agree more with the views expressed by Osmund Law in his letter headlined, 'Teachers and principals used as scapegoats' (South China Morning Post, October 24). Mr Law criticised the Government's ineffectiveness with regard to education policies.
Year after year we have been lamenting declining standards of English among Hong Kong students. It should not shock anyone to know that some secondary one students cannot even master the 26 letters of the alphabet. How has this been allowed to happen? In previous years, governments came up with what they supposed was the solution - to employ more native speakers of English to teach in local schools. Now more are to be appointed.
Apart from the difficulty of recruiting suitably qualified expatriate teachers and the problems of adjustment which they will experience, how much can they really do, with two native speakers stationed in each school? How many of the over 1,000 students can they really help? The key to success in acquiring a language is sufficient exposure to the language. And the best way to get that exposure is through learning with a native speaker. But with a ratio of two teachers to 1,000 students, how much exposure can they provide to each pupil? At the end of the day, it is the local English teachers on the frontline who matter more.
The crux of the problem is class size. Teachers may be able to identify the needs of individual students, but with a class size of 40, what can teachers do? For years now, language teachers have been complaining about their unreasonable workload. With such large classes, teachers face a tedious daily chore of preparing assignments, compositions, tests and exam papers. They also have extra-curricular activities and must help with school administration and provide counselling and guidance to students. In some schools, they even have to take up extra duties like providing a translation service and drafting letters and students' recommendations for the principal; they have to train students for speech festivals and for all sorts of essay and book report competitions. With such a busy schedule, it is inevitably the students who suffer. Often they are not given sufficient writing practice.
It is simply a matter of common-sense to have small class sizes. Language teaching and learning require a lot of practice in reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as interaction with the teacher and other learners. Our crowded classrooms hinder effective interaction. If split-class remedial English lessons help weak learners, we should aim to provide split-class language lessons to all students.
Apparently, the Government is reviewing the workload of language teachers. Yet, without the commitment of more funding and resources, the problems I have described will not be solved. The original proposal to provide financial incentives to persuade more qualified personnel to take up language teaching as a career has now become simply a language test for teachers.
