by Mandy Cheuk, Hong Kong Unison
"...The argument that learning Chinese is unnecessary for ethnic minorities seeking success and a stable future only avoids the problems they are almost certain to encounter further down the road. It sets ethnic minorities up for failure — and worse still, gives them false hopes that do not reflect reality."
"...learning a language is not a preference but a right which every student in Hong Kong should be able to enjoy....It is discriminatory to assume that students do not need to learn the mainstream language just because they are of different skin colour, or speak a different mother tongue."
"In order to achieve the potential of every student and smooth their path in life regardless of ethnicity, it is time for our education bureau to create a comprehensive Chinese-language policy. This means not only developing a proper Chinese curriculum for students whose mother tongue is not Chinese..."