Two-thirds of Hong Kong secondary school students say English classes left them unprepared for future
- The current English-language syllabus is not enough to ready most pupils for further study or the job market, a new survey has found
- About 65 per cent of students also say the existing exam-oriented syllabus ‘lacks sufficient connection with real life’
Some two-thirds of respondents in a recent survey of Hong Kong secondary school students said the English they learned in class was not enough to meet the demands of daily life, let alone advanced study or their desired careers.
The survey results, released on Wednesday by the Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Organisation and the Women Teachers’ Organisation, also showed that nearly a third of the pupils believed speaking and writing were the two components they wished they had more training in.
“Many schools are quite exam-oriented in their syllabus,” said veteran English teacher Pauline Chow Lo-sai, chair of the Women Teachers’ Organisation. “Some students, even upon graduation, may need to rely a lot on Chinese subtitles when watching English movies.”
The questionnaires, which were distributed to 1,241 senior students from 10 secondary schools in July before the summer break, asked respondents about their views on the current English-language syllabus and whether they felt it was beneficial in their day-to-day lives.
