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The Working Group on Medium of Instruction recommended to the Government today (September 1) that the status quo of the medium of instruction (MOI) policy be maintained until the 2003/04 school year. The Government has accepted the recommendation.

The Working Group was set up in 1998 to review and recommend to the Government the arrangements on medium of instruction for secondary schools in and after the 2001/02 school year, as well as on other issues relevant to the mother-tongue teaching policy. Members of the Working Group are from the Board of Education and the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research.

The Working Group considered that the Government should not introduce major changes to the present policy at this stage. The Education Commission (EC) is conducting a comprehensive review of the education system, and a new secondary school places allocation (SSPA) system will be implemented progressively. If changes are introduced to the MOI simultaneously, students, parents and schools may not be able to adapt to the new arrangements.

The Working Group believed that the Government should assess the full impact of the overall education reform before making a decision on the way forward for the MOI policy. The EC has proposed a review on the new SSPA in 2003 when the long term arrangements for MOI will also be considered altogether. Therefore, any new proposal on MOI will not be implemented earlier than September 2004.

The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mrs Fanny Law welcomed the Working Group's proposal.

"Though the mother-tongue teaching policy has only been implemented for two years, we can already see some initial success. We agree that it is not appropriate to introduce major changes to the MOI arrangements at present. The EC will conduct a comprehensive review on SSPA in 2003, and that should be the best time for reviewing the MOI policy," said Mrs Law.

The Working Group has proposed the following interim measures before September 2004:

* For Secondary 1 to 3, the status quo will be maintained.

* For Secondary 4 to 5, according to the MOI Guidance for Secondary Schools released in September 1997, schools using Chinese as MOI for their junior secondary students may switch to use English as the medium of instruction (EMI) for certain subjects in some classes at Secondary 4 and 5, provided that the subject teachers concerned have the requisite capability, students can effectively learn with EMI and the schools could afford adequate support. The schools should prepare appropriate arrangements for Secondary 3 students like English bridging classes.

* For Secondary 6 to 7, schools may decide themselves the MOI to be used, taking into account the ability and needs of their students to learn effectively, and subject to the teachers concerned having the necessary ability.

The Chairman of the Working Group, Mr Issac Tse said: "The Working Group's objective is to facilitate students to learn effectively while ensuring their standard of English. The Working Group has conducted various activities to collect opinions on the implementation of the MOI policy. These activities included school visits, opinion survey, focus group sessions, analyses of research information and statistics provided by the Education Department and summing up of views and information obtained from all sources."

The Working Group has reached the following conclusions:

* effectiveness of mother-tongue teaching should be confirmed, particularly in enhancing the communication in the classroom as well as depth and breadth of teaching;

* a study shows that there is no drop in the standard of English when the medium for learning of non-language subjects is switched to the mother tongue;

* there is strong support for the use of mother tongue in schools especially from principals, teachers and students, although it is fully appreciated that many parents still prefer to send their children to EMI schools.

Mr Tse added that the Working Group had made the following major recommendations regarding the long term development of the MOI policy:

* while continuing to promote mother-tongue teaching, there is a need to retain EMI schools in the system in recognition of the proven record of some schools to deliver EMI effectively, to enable those who can benefit from EMI to attain a high level of English proficiency, and to maintain it as a characteristic of a diversified school system;

* principals, teachers and parents generally agreed that the most important pre-condition for EMI to be effective is the proficiency of teachers to teach in the English language;

* students' language proficiency is an important consideration in determining whether they could learn effectively in English. The Working Group proposed that students' ability and suitability to learn in English should be assessed by their own schools;

* the Working Group has not reached any consensus on the option of allowing schools to adopt different mode of teaching in certain subjects or classes at Secondary 1 to 3. However, the Working Group agreed that the desirability of the "two-mode" teaching should be further studied by the Education Department.

End/Friday, September 1, 2000

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