HK exodus due to cumulative school fee hikes
I am writing in response to Kelly Yang's article ('Upside of higher fees at international schools', April 15) as I feel Ms Yang is unaware of a few key facts.
Firstly, many members of the Native English Speaking Teachers' Association (Nesta) have approached local schools to educate their children, only to be turned away.
Whatever the schools claim, in practice, the vast majority of local schools refuse to accommodate children who are not fluent in Cantonese.
The reason for this is simple: although Ms Yang asserts that local schools 'particularly at a secondary level, teach almost all classes ... in English', the reality is very different. In many schools, few lessons are conducted in English, but rather in mixed code.
Secondly, the teaching of English as a second language is very different from the study of English in native English-speaking classrooms.
Our local students are learning about adverbs and prepositions, filling in a single missing word in a sentence; their native English-speaking peers use the language to discuss wider world issues. It is impossible to place these students side by side and expect the native speakers to relate to a grammar-based curriculum, or the second-language learners to engage in worthwhile debate on any topic not covered by the textbook.
