Many other ethnic minority children set their hearts on government jobs but are not as lucky as Dean Jason Escuro. Poor Chinese proficiency stops them from doing big things, despite their high professional competence, Constable Hung Ka-wai noted. There has been a steep decline in the number of the ethnic minority police since 1997 when China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over the city. Chinese language has taken on greater importance than ever, with Chinese proficiency a prime requisite for civil-service positions. The change diminished chances for ethnic minority people to enter government service.

Those who succeed work very hard on their Chinese. Believing language should not be a hurdle for aspiring ethnic minority youth, Hung launched a program called Pilot Gemstone in 2013, aiming to provide Chinese tutorial classes for ethnic minority youths resolved to join the disciplinary force, including the Police Force and Fire Services.

Language lessons

Chinese classes are held on Saturdays, open to ethnic minority people with no admission fee. There is group discussion and exercise. Students are guided through reading and asked to summarize or rewrite stories. Reading and writing are common weaknesses among them, even if they speak Cantonese fluently.

Not all government positions demand high proficiency in Chinese, especially those that don't involve written Chinese paperwork, argues Raymond Ho, senior equal opportunities officer for the Equal Opportunities Commission. He urged every government department to review, critically, each job description and re-evaluate the importance of Chinese in performing the job. As long as candidates perform satisfactorily in spoken Chinese and are qualified professionally, the employer may take them in and provide on-the-job training to improve their written Chinese later on.

Lack of Chinese proficiency is a widespread concern among ethnic minority communities and the government has noted its effect on employment prospects. In this year's Policy Address, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor emphasized increasing government employment opportunities for ethnic minorities. She said the Civil Service Bureau has started a comprehensive review on entry requirements relating to Chinese proficiency for all the grades in the civil service. The review is expected to be completed early next year.

Positive aspect

"For some jobs, ethnic minority languages could be seen as a plus or an additional point. Employers should consider allowing the additional skill of speaking an ethnic minority language to offset a candidate's inadequacy in Cantonese or Mandarin," suggested Devi Novianti, an officer at the Equal Opportunities Commission.

The Pilot Gemstone program has 60 police volunteers helping teach Chinese. Escuro is one of them. Apart from teaching Chinese, volunteers help candidates prepare for Chinese self-introduction and presentation at interviews for government posts. More than 300 ethnic minority youngsters are learning through the Chinese-learning program. Some already have worked in the government sector.

Hung hopes to use this successful example and Escuro's story to help other ethnic minority youngsters understand that language should not be a hindrance to their finding employment with the government and to encourage them to keep trying.

jenny@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 11/17/2017 page7)