Straight from horse's mouth

AREPORT on how employers, parents, teachers, principals and students view language proficiency of youngsters will be ready by the end of the school year.

The Education Commission Working Group on Language Proficiency is conducting a territory-wide survey which will cover views on student abilities in both written and spoken English, Chinese and Putonghua.

Working group chairman Angela Cheung Wong Wan-yiu said Hong Kong lacked data on the topic and her survey, costing about $1.5 million, would be the first of its kind in the territory.

''The survey will cover nearly all kinds of people, including employers, parents, principals, teachers and students of all levels and different kinds of schools,'' said Mrs Cheung.

''We hope the survey, to be conducted on such a large-scale, will give us a clear picture of the language standards and problems young people have nowadays.'' She expects an initial report to be out in May and the final one to be ready in June for her working group and other related bodies to study.

''We believe the results will serve as an indicator and guideline to help the Government devise a suitable approach and measures to raise standard.'' More than 8,000 primary, secondary and tertiary students, and their parents, teachers and principals, as well as employers of some graduates, will be interviewed.