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SCMP Reporter

Is the change to the Discovery Bay primary school net suitable?
The government has been a bit hasty in making the decision that  graduates of SKH Wei Lun Primary School  will not be allowed to choose secondary schools in the Central and Western district school net in 2015 ('Discovery Bay parents fight school allocations change', May 5).
Officials had claimed a subsidised school would be built in Discovery Bay.
However, the plan was never put into action and no school has been built.
What the government has done has made many parents  very worried about the future of their children.
Even if a new school is built in Discovery Bay, that is no replacement for being able to choose secondary schools with a good reputation in Central and Western district.
About 60 per cent of SKH Wei Lun Primary School students have been allocated places in English secondary schools over the past three years.
It would be unfair to students who are good at English but find they have no  chance to study at English secondary schools.
Will people come to see Hong Kong as a place where discrimination operates, where some people are not given the chance to show their talent, because they live in the wrong place?
If students' results are good, they should be allowed to go to a school where they will be taught in English.
In our society great emphasis is placed on students' proficiency in English. If they want to get good jobs and earn high salaries, they will need to have a good standard of English.  It is not so much a problem with mother-tongue teaching, but comes down to the calibre of students attending English schools.
Some people think that  mother-tongue teaching is a failure. I think it is simply that it cannot meet the demands of our society.
Catherine Yip Wai-man, Tsing Yi
Who should be given the vacant school in Mui Wo?
I have visited the premises of the Christian Zheng Sheng College  on Lantau and seen their rehabilitation services for secondary students.
I can only say that I was extremely impressed with their programme and the level of co-operation among the students who were housed in the facility.
The success level of students in this programme is far above the regular averages for rehabilitating students.
I believe strongly that government sources need to make it possible for the college to expand its programme to use the Heung Yee Kuk Southern District Secondary School  in Mui Wo  to properly house its overcrowded programme.
My hope is that many people will see that Christian Zheng Sheng College is filling a vital need in the Hong Kong community and they should support the application to expand their programme.
Jack Van Dyke,   dean of the faculty of natural and applied sciences, Trinity Western University,  Langley,  British Columbia, Canada
What do you think of the
proposed food labelling system?
I would personally like to congratulate local bureaucrats  for making Hong Kong an international laughing  stock with its proposed food labelling regulations.
As if living in one of the world's most polluted cities wasn't bad enough, the government now seems intent on going out of its way to keep healthy food out of reach of the people who need it most.
The presumption that nutritional information provided on packaged food from places like the United States and Europe won't be able to match the supposed high standards of Hong Kong is not only laughable but arrogant.
My son has a dairy intolerance and my wife can't eat wheat.
The rice milk and rice pasta they use as a substitute, for example, will almost certainly be banned under the proposed legislation, along with many other healthy food items.  What are they supposed to do then?
'Hong Kong - Asia's world city'. I think not.
Andrew Sams, Sai Kung
What do you think of public hospital standards?
There are three aspects of public hospital standards which concern me - staff attitudes, visiting hours and waiting times.
There is no doubt that most members of staff are under a lot of pressure, but  that is no excuse for being rude to patients. I think that periodically hospitals should organise activities which will help hospital employees relieve the stress.
Also, some staff are so impatient that they try to rush patients.  Again, it is up to the hospitals to help and provide courses that teach staff how to behave properly to patients before they start work.
And visiting hours are inadequate. There are appointed times, but for some family members it may not be possible to visit during these designated periods.  I think visiting hours have to be more flexible.
Finally, some patients find they have to wait  a long time before they can get treatment. Their condition might deteriorate while they are enduring this long wait.  Where, for clinical reasons, it is seen to be necessary to shorten a patient's waiting time, this should be done by the hospital.
Loretta Ng Nga-yee, Yau Tong
Should domestic helpers get a pay rise?
T. Narain (Talkback, May 6) compared conditions for foreign domestic helpers here with helpers in  Singapore.
It is true that domestic helpers working in Singapore would like to come to Hong Kong because the wages and holidays are better.
Also, they have freedom to express their opinions.
If they enjoyed this same freedom in Singapore, you would see hundreds of helpers marching on the streets protesting about their conditions, just as they can in Hong Kong.
Of course, there are employers who value their domestic helpers and I am grateful to them for their support.
In an earlier letter on the same subject (Talkback, April 18), T. Narain asked: 'Why do they need extra money - to buy luxury items on Sundays and public holidays?'
Would it hurt you much if you see helpers enjoy life a bit?
There are employers  who buy luxury items for their helpers  in appreciation of their hard work.  T. Narain wonders why helpers are not thankful for what they have got.  Why should they be grateful if they are not appreciated by their employers?
Salvacion S. Arcenal, Repulse Bay



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