Letters | Native English teachers can’t fix what ails Hong Kong education

Readers discuss reforming the city’s exam-oriented system, the lack of sleep among schoolchildren, and claw machines covering up illicit gambling

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Students sit for a paper at the 2024 Diploma of Secondary Education exam in April 2024, at a school in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Photo: Handout

Published: 11:30am, 2 Jan 2025

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I write in response to the letter, “Hong Kong should not ‘localise’ native English teachers” (December 24).

In criticising native English teachers, your correspondent has actually held up a mirror to Hong Kong education and, in particular, how English is taught here.

I have moved on from the Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Scheme and am not bitter. In fact, I am grateful for what it taught me about how not to teach, assess learning, devise a curriculum and implement child safeguarding (the list goes on).

Of course, I am very grateful for the high salary and while your correspondent questions it, I can give an assurance that it is what keeps native English teachers in position. In six years on the scheme, every native English teacher I met claimed to be staying for the money and at best professed tolerance of their job, rather than satisfaction.

Those who wanted to develop their careers and professional learning, like me, have since moved on. Your correspondent’s call for “fresh blood” on the scheme is misleading because change is needed across the board, from initial teacher training to school governance to curriculum to assessment of teaching and learning.