Letters | Hong Kong’s non-Chinese-speaking students need better support from the Education Bureau

Last month, the Audit Commission released a report on the education support measures for non-Chinese-speaking (NCS) students. The findings are no surprise at all, but they ought to be a good reminder to the Education Bureau to enhance its public sector performance and accountability.

The report recommends the need to “encourage schools to make good use of the NCS Grant”. Hong Kong Unison believes mere encouragement is not enough. The Education Bureau should take charge and develop grant-usage guidelines and outcome-tracking metrics to improve effectiveness of the grant.

Another long-time issue is the lack of training requirements for teachers teaching non-Chinese-speaking students and the low participation rate at Education Bureau training sessions. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, in her election manifesto in 2017, asked the bureau to establish a professional ladder for primary and secondary schoolteachers who have acquired specialised skills in teaching Chinese as a second language. To date, such a policy is not in place.

Moreover, there is an urgent need to develop a curriculum for Chinese as a second language. Without a curriculum, it is difficult for teachers to develop teaching and learning materials even if they have attended professional teacher training.

The report also noted that the number of non-Chinese-speaking students nominated to the student support programme had decreased over the years. During Unison’s outreach, many non-Chinese-speaking parents and students mentioned they were not aware of the programme, and those who attended said the programme did not help in Chinese learning.