to the two Certificates but in practice we fear that there is every possibility that the present dual system of education will continue and disparities in Chinese and English language standards will persist.
22. We do not profess to know the answer to this problem but all indications point to the need for a close re-examination of English and Chinese teaching in the two secondary school systems. It has been suggested to us that the answer might lie in reducing the multiplicity of subjects that our secondary school students are allowed to study. Consequently, to improve the standard of Chinese in our Anglo-Chinese schools, the time table could be re-arranged so that it would be possible for a student, without giving up any of his English language lessons, to take up to three or four more lessons per week for Chinese studies by dropping a similar number of lessons in another subject. Conversely, to improve the English standards in Chinese Middle schools, the time table could be re- arranged so that it would be possible for a student, without giving up any of his Chinese language lessons, to take up to three or four more lessons per week for English studies by dropping a similar number of lessons in another subject.
23. We emphasize that, except for one of our number, we are not experts in educational matters, but nevertheless, we recommend that the Director of Education should further examine the ways and means by which the standards of English and Chinese of our secondary school graduates may be equalized and improved.
CHINESE AS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
24. While the question of making Chinese a '' (Fat Ting U Man), or official language, was not within our terms of reference, we have realized all along that our recommendations must have a bearing on this matter and would certainly be read by the public in the light of expressed interest in this question.
25. We take 'X' (Fat Ting U Man), or official language, to mean a language authorized for communication between Government and the Public. Your Excellency, in a speech made before the Legislative Council, referred to 'as near equality of status and use as is practically possible' for both Chinese and
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English in official business. In our minds therefore, acceptance of Chinese as a 'X' (Fat Ting U Man) is implicit in the fore-going reference and will become even more evidently so if Government puts into effect the recommendations we have made, all of which we consider practicable.
26. We have in our previous reports recommended not only the wider use of Chinese in official business but also the accordance of equal status to both Chinese and English in specific areas. However, as our Legal Sub-Committee has said in their report; 'Equal status does not necessarily imply equal use in every single instance. Status denotes the rank of one language in relation to another, whereas use concerns communication.' Therefore, bearing in mind the fore-going differentiation between status
status and use, we recommend:
(a) that Chinese and English be declared to have equal
status.
and (b) that Chinese and/or English will be used by Govern- ment in accordance with all the recommendations con- tained in our reports.
27. Consequent upon our observations in paragraph 25 and our recommendations in paragraph 26, we finally recommend that Government should consider promulgating a firm policy, in a suitable manner, that Chinese and English are '' (Fat Ting U Man), that is to say, official languages.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
28. We should like to thank all the organizations and indivi- duals who have written to us and their opinions and suggestions have been found most useful. We should also like to thank those representatives of organizations and individuals who have spared their time for discussion with us and their advice has been helpful. We also much appreciate the co-operation and helpfulness that have been shown to us in the past nine months by the Heads of Government Departments, by organizations outside Government, and by individual members of the public. We are much indebted to the Director of Information Services for providing his conference room for our meetings, to the Manager, City Hall, for making
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