Many employers complain that the standard of English of fresh graduates is declining. This has caused dismay among some members of society, given that we have had years of English-language education in Hong Kong and it has been a failure.
Now the Government has indicated it wants to change the education system in the hope that this will solve the problems we face. It wants to see greater use of Cantonese as the medium of instruction in tertiary institutions, arguing this will lead to higher-calibre graduates.
I disagree with this viewpoint. Even in schools and colleges where Cantonese is used for teaching, the English standard is still declining. An expansion of Cantonese as the medium of instruction will only make things worse. Many secondary schools still teach in English.
If students had to switch to Cantonese, they would find it difficult to adapt. Some would find it difficult to understand what the teachers were saying. In some subjects, it may be difficult to translate technical data from the original English.
We need a trained workforce which can speak English so that we can communicate with people from European countries.
Students benefit from being taught by foreign teachers and native English-speaking lecturers at Hong Kong's universities. How could they understand those lecturers if at school and university they were taught in Cantonese? Hong Kong is an international city and it is important that its citizens can speak and write well in both Chinese and English. In tertiary institutions, English must be the medium of instruction.
