Hong Kong determined to boost English, education standards

Hong Kong is determined to boost English and education standards to underpin ongoing development as an international city, the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, said in London today (July 5).

Mr Tsang made the remarks following meetings with the English Speaking Union (ESU) and the UK eUniversities.

The ESU, established in 1918, is a non-profit, non-political education charity that promotes international understanding and human achievement through the widening use of English as the language of the global village. The Hong Kong chapter was established in December last year, joining chapters in 43 countries.

During a meeting with members of the ESU's Board of Governors, Mr Tsang pointed out that English remained one of Hong Kong's two official languages.

"We consider that adopting English as an official language is one of our most important assets," he said.

"It symbolises our status as an international city with a separate system from that on the Mainland.

"It is vitally important for Hong Kong to continue to improve our English standards, while at the same time improving the standards of written and spoken Chinese. This is where our advantage lies."

ESU Board member Baroness Perry described Hong Kong as a 'linguistic gateway' to the Mainland and the rest of East Asia.

"Because you speak English in Hong Kong you are a doorway into other markets for them and I think it is an enormous advantage to have that role," she said.

Mr Tsang said more Native English-speaking teachers (NETs) would soon be recruited from the UK and other countries such as the US, Australia and New Zealand to bolster the teaching of English in primary schools. This was in addition to the more than 500 NETs who had been recruited to teach in government secondary schools.

Earlier in the day, Mr Tsang was briefed on the development of the recently-established UK eUniversities, a public-private partnership initiated by the British Government to widen access in Britain and globally to UK higher education through on-line courses.

The UK government has invested GBP62 million (HK$740 million) in the UK eUniversities project, which is developing its own cyber learning platform to enhance the interactivity of e-learning.

UK eUniversities is licensed by the UK's leading universities to deliver on-line courses globally. The first three courses from Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam and York universities will begin next January.

During the meeting Mr Tsang said the Hong Kong SAR Government was devoting considerable resources to boosting access to education. This was needed to ensure that Hong Kong continued to move up the value chain in the knowledge-based global economy.

He said the UK eUniversities project was extremely interesting because it aimed to provide high quality education services to a greater number of people but cheaper than if they attended a traditional university campus.

"As we are promoting lifelong education in Hong Kong, this is a new type of education model that we may be able to learn something from," he said.

Later in the day, the Chief Secretary held talks with the UK's Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet (designate), Sir Andrew Turnbull.

Topics discussed included the new accountability system, the neutrality of the civil service and the UK's experience in dealing with the interplay between the civil service and political appointees.

Ends/Saturday, July 6, 2002