[lg policy] Hong Kong:

Harold Schiffman hfsclpp at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 8 15:43:23 UTC 2014 

 Plans for ethnic minority pupils to get new Chinese-language curriculum

Policy address set to announce plans for a new framework for teaching
Chinese as a second language to better integrate ethnic minority children
    PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 08 January, 2014, 4:14am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 08 January, 2014, 4:50am

Jennifer Ngo jennifer.ngo at scmp.com
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  Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee. Photo: Paul Yeung

The upcoming policy address is expected to set out plans to boost resources
for learning Chinese as a second language in mainstream schools - a crucial
step towards better integrating ethnic minority children into society.

The language barrier has long been cited as a key factor that has kept
Southeast Asian and South Asian ethnic minorities on the periphery of Hong
Kong society, living for generations in poverty.

This would be the first time the government has promised to put in place
resources and a curriculum framework to help children struggling to become
fluent in the local language. Those struggles inhibit many pupils from
getting into top schools and push tertiary education opportunities further
out of their reach.

"Having a 'Chinese as a second language' curriculum is non-negotiable,"
Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, executive committee chairwoman of ethnic minority
advocacy NGO, Unison, said. "It is the key - we will not settle for less.

"The government must pledge to take the responsibility to set up a true
'Chinese as a second language' curriculum - including allocating resources,
setting up an overseeing committee, and designing a curriculum."

According to a source with close knowledge of the government's education
plans, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy speech this month will
announce plans to establish a pre-primary language-assessment system and a
curriculum framework for the primary level. It will also announce plans to
free up resources for training teachers of Chinese as a second language.

"There has to be a course goal, teaching methodology, teaching materials
and assessment tools in a basic curriculum," Chung Lai-ming, a Chinese
teacher who has worked with ethnic minority students for a decade, said.

"I understand that this cannot be achieved in a day, but it has to start
somewhere."

Applied Chinese learning - such as teaching enough Chinese to perform a
specific role - was not an acceptable alternative, Ng said.

It was necessary for the government to provide a curriculum taught in
mainstream schools from kindergarten to the end of secondary school that
would enable young ethnic minority people to become fluent in both written
and spoken Chinese, she said.

If this was not "written in black and white" in the policy address, Unison
would be ready to take action, she added.

"We would push the Equal Opportunities Commission to conduct an
investigation to see if the government is in contravention of the [Race
Discrimination Ordinance]," she warned.

The group would also consider a judicial review, she added.

There are approximately 15,000 ethnic minority pupils in the education
system, with most attending 31 out of 852 government schools.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1400110/plans-ethnic-minority-pupils-get-new-chinese-language-curriculum




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