TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE TEST FOR THE WORKPLACE

Dr Jane Lockwood (South China Morning Post, February 21) asks why deputy chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, should promote the use of a test called the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to measure the English level of his staff.

The simple answer is that a much-trumpeted consultation document 'Action Plan to Raise Language Standards in Hong Kong' published in January by the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (Scolar) recommends the use of IELTS.

This document suggests: 'For working adults who wish to assess their English language competencies, we recommend that they make use of the IELTS.'

Dr Lockwood rightly points out that promotion of IELTS is at odds with the Workplace English Campaign (WEC) which has spent a large amount of money on promoting benchmarks other than IELTS over the last three years. So, is this yet another case of the government's left hand not knowing what its right is doing? Regrettably not. The chairman of Scolar is Michael Tien Puk-sun. And he is also chairman of the WEC which is supervised by Scolar. So if anyone should know what each hand is doing it is Mr Tien. So the metaphor is not of left hand, right hand, but 'shooting oneself in the foot'.

The IELTS test is not appropriate for companies such as Sun Hung Kai to use as a benchmark for their staff.

As Dr Lockwood notes, IELTS is used as an exam to test proficiency to enter universities in such places as the US, Britain and Australia.