Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is 'too busy' to meet with ethnic minorities and concern groups to discuss the need for a separate Chinese curriculum for second-language learners, a spokeswoman for his office said yesterday.
The rejection came in a two-paragraph faxed response to a six-page open letter sent to Mr Tsang last month by a coalition of more than 50 associations and community leaders, headed by the rights group Hong Kong Unison.
'The Chief Executive is unable to accept the invitation due to other commitments,' it said.
Unison director Fermi Wong Wai-fun said the response had 'oversimplified' their letter's demands and failed to address their concerns.
'Our request for a meeting with the Chief Executive was only a small part of the letter,' Ms Wong said. 'Our hope was that he would actually read the letter himself, and take an interest in this issue.'
The letter had called upon Mr Tsang to intervene in the issue by instructing the Education and Manpower Bureau to take a more active role in the development of Chinese-language teaching to non-Chinese-speaking students.
