HK students have impressive track record
Suzanne Berger, a globalisation expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology opined that since the government's decision 'to shift the medium of teaching to Chinese' in 1997, 'there has been a deterioration in students' quality' ('Fall in standard of students' English a threat to city's competitiveness, says US professor', January 12).
This opinion contradicts the findings of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa). In the past decade, these international organisations have consistently found Hong Kong's students excel in mathematical, reading and problem-solving skills.
Of the nine places for the top-three positions in Pisa's 2006 survey of three scholastic qualities, East Asian students secured five places, compared with native English-speaking students with only one place. Singapore, where English is the medium of teaching, did not attain a top-five place. There is no correlation between students' quality and medium of teaching.
Nevertheless, a prejudice persists. Many scholars like Professor Berger believe that Hong Kong students' allegedly declining English standard may affect the city's 'global competitiveness'. Why is fluent English considered so vital for global competitiveness?
Globalisation is predicated on the capitalist doctrine of 'consumer sovereignty' which holds that the new world order should be determined by how consumers spend their money, the economic equivalent of political votes. Global competitiveness measures the ability to earn money by supplying what the world demands. The world has an insatiable demand for German cars, Japanese electronics and French luxury goods. People from these countries do not need a good command of English in order to be competitive because they have established niches of excellence.
The woe of Hong Kong is that scholastic performance, which would be highly valued if attained by students in other countries, is deemed worthless when attained by this city's students. Over-emphasising the importance of fluent English perpetuates the self-fulfilling prejudice that the principal role for Hong Kong in the new world order is that of compradors between western buyers and Chinese suppliers.
