Hong Kong strives to be a trilingual city. In kindergarten, children are exposed to at least Cantonese (the dialect widely used in Guangdong province), Putonghua and English.
However, there has always been confusion with regard to the allocation of resources for languages.
The use of Putonghua in school is a current example. The head of a think-tank on language policy, Michael Tien Puk-sun, has been advocating classes in Putonghua and English. Mr Tien is the chairman of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research.
However, an academic recently revealed that some school teachers have been put off using Putonghua in class due to insufficient training. Teachers fear their grasp of the language is inadequate, said Professor Ho Wai-kit, chairman of the Centre for Research and Development of Putonghua Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
'Teachers' Putonghua ability is the biggest stumbling block to the switch [in teaching medium]. Their current training is not designed to enable them to teach in Putonghua,' he said. Professor Ho's centre carried out a study that involved primary and secondary schools using Putonghua as a medium of instruction for at least one subject. 'More resources should be allocated for the switch,' he said.
Meanwhile, there has been heavy criticism of the English medium of instruction policy. At present, 114 schools are allowed to teach Forms One to Three in English, while 293 must use Chinese in the classroom. However, from Form Four onwards, schools can decide for themselves which teaching medium they would like to adopt. Almost half of the Chinese-medium secondary schools switch back to English in senior forms.