In order to remove the stigma commonly attached to secondary schools using Chinese as the medium of instruction, the Education Bureau has recently reproposed that any class in these schools in which 85% of the students are up to standard should be allowed to teach all its subjects in English, whereas the remaining classes should be able to enjoy up to one-fourth of their total tuition hours to be taught in English.

During the last special meeting of the Legco Education Panel, I raised doubts about this proposal, arguing that this not only represented a back-pedaling on government policies, but would also pose enormous challenge to teachers who do not necessarily master the two languages simultaneously.

Since last year, my party colleagues and I have continuously been pushing for the abolition of the Employees Retraining Levy,imposed by the Administration on all employers of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) across the territory since 2003.

In the wake of the Government's latest announcement that collection of the levy will soon be suspended for a period of two years, I have received a lot of angry protests from members of the public, who have just concluded their contracts with their FDHs, but who now find themselves excluded from the exemption because the new measure will only come into effect in September (now rescheduled for August).

To get their message across, we have already sent a written appeal to the Chief Executive, demanding that the commencement date of the suspension be brought forward to the 16th of July,the day on which the policy was announced.