It is commonly recognized that Chinese is a major barrier to South Asian students’ learning in Hong Kong (e.g. EOC 2005; Loper 2004; Yuen 2007). In this paper I will explain how and why Chinese contributes to being a barrier to their learning, and the consequence of this. In addition to Chinese, I will also contend how English constitutes to another barrier although this is often overlooked.

According to the 2006 Population By-census (Census & Statistics Dept., HKSAR 2007), 95% of the Hong Kong population are ethnic Chinese. The rest 5% (342,198) were ethnic minorities, comprised of peoples of different ethnic backgrounds.

However, as far as the Education Bureau is concerned, ethnic minorities refer to South Asians -- mainly Indians, Pakistanis and Nepaleses (Legislative Council Secretariat 2006, paragraph 2). In 2006 there were 10,413 Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese children under the age of 15 residing in Hong Kong (Census & Statistics Dept., HKSAR). These South Asian children usually come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, and need to rely on public education.

A majority of primary and secondary schools in the public sector use Chinese as the medium of instruction. And in Hong Kong, Chinese means Cantonese, a dialect spoken in Southern China, not Putonghua the national language. Cantonese is the means of communication in everyday life. Students who do not possess the necessary competence to use Cantonese to learn are expected to encounter immense difficulty in their learning.

As mentioned previously, language is identified as a major barrier for South Asian students in their learning (e.g. Ku et al. 2005; Loper 2001, 2004; YMMSS 2000; Yuen 2007). The Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong (EOC) has pointed out that ‘many ethnic minority children face severe difficulties in schooling, especially Chinese, due to the language barrier’ (2005, paragraph 26). The government also agrees that language especially Chinese is the South Asian children’s major barrier to achievement (Government of the HKSAR 2004, 2005).

For many South Asian students, they are learning both English and Chinese as additional languages. A majority of the schools which have a substantial number of ethnic minority students adopt English as the medium of instruction and students learn Chinese as a subject. Since their number is small, there are no textbooks designed for them and teachers may use textbooks designed for native speakers of English. The language in these textbooks is often too difficult for both the teachers and the students.

In schools in which South Asian students are small in number, they learn alongside local students. There may be some support for them initially, but all the lessons, except for English are conducted in Chinese.

Some schools put these South Asian students in lower levels, disregarding their previous learning. It is not uncommon for a student to be allocated to a class two or more levels below the grade he/she was studying at home.

Another common strategy that schools employ is to simplify the learning content for these students. Consequently, the students do not have access to the full curriculum. By the time their language has improved to a minimum level that enables them to learn in either Chinese or English, their achievement in content knowledge would be years behind their peers.