Once again, the government milks the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination results to support its premature claims to success in its divisive medium of instruction policies. Do gains of less than 1 per cent in the English language results justify the massive changes? Years later, where are the dramatic improvements promised?
The issue is the mother of all educational issues, with far-reaching consequences for our future as an international city.
For anti-colonial reasons, two other Asian countries - Malaysia and the Philippines - have travelled down this path before, replacing English with their vernacular in schools. Both ended disastrously, before officials backpedalled.
Blind to the lessons of other failed experiments, our officials chose to revisit the graveyard of educational nightmares, while Shanghai wisely embraces a forward-looking bilingual education programme. After a parody of consultation, hundreds of local schools were ordered to teach in Cantonese.
The signal failure of the last administration is its bungled process of public consultation. Policies, such as medium of instruction, spring full-grown from the heads of our officials. Presented as unassailable doctrines, only cosmetic changes are countenanced. Instead of trawling for new ideas, they preach. Consultation becomes a hard sell.
Education reform is not an exact science. It takes respectful listening and collective wisdom, not the epiphany which seizes our officials. With their history of backtracking over past misjudgments, can we trust our fate to them?
The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) is a factory that manufactures, packages and conveyor-belts despair to its helpless recipients. The misery index is linked to school woes - tired children, stressed-out parents, and burned-out teachers. We all need a break.
