A draft primary-school curriculum says Primary Two pupils should be able to begin entering Chinese using Pinyin, the system for writing Mandarin sounds with the Roman alphabet.
The Education Bureau said pupils already encounter Pinyin in primary Putonghua lessons and can recognise the English letters on a keyboard. It proposes that younger primary pupils learn the standard 26-letter keyboard layout before moving on to Chinese input.
The bureau described Pinyin typing as a way to connect keyboard skills with language learning. It said other methods could require pupils to learn a new system from scratch, citing Cangjie as an example. It also said Cantonese phonetic systems lack consistency, making them harder for teachers and pupils to master.
The draft allocates about three lessons to input methods, the bureau said, giving pupils a chance to try entering Chinese with a keyboard. They could learn other methods later according to their needs.