When educationalists are mouthing some administrative policy unquestioningly as though it was an infallible moral maxim, it always gives me goose pimples. This was the case in point when I read J. R. Henderson's letter 'ESF schools never had any racial bar' (South China Morning Post, September 5).
In the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, no publicly subsidised educational institution could deny admission based on the blatantly discriminatory criterion of whether a student is judged able to benefit from an education in English, unless it is prepared to face more lawsuits than the number of students now studying with the English Schools Foundation.
In Hong Kong Remembers, Mary Bloch recalls the beginning of her education at Tianjin Grammar School when, as a five-year-old Russian emigre, she had never heard a word of English before. If the same Mary Bloch were to apply for admission to an ESF school today, would she be considered? Would educationists at ESF agree that language is meant for communication and not for segregation?
PIERCE LAM
Central
