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In response to press enquiries about the way forward for the medium of instruction (MOI) policy, a spokesman for the Education Bureau (EDB) said today (November 14), "As Asia's world city, Hong Kong's students should master English to embrace the challenges in their future careers. Given Hong Kong's close relationship with our motherland, our students should also be well versed in Chinese. In this connection, the Government will continue with its effort to foster our students to be biliterate and trilingual. Our ultimate objective is to ensure that our students are proficient in both Chinese and English."
In primary and secondary schools, the Government has been promoting a MOI policy which emphasises both mother-tongue teaching and mastery of English. Over the past few years, both class observations and the results of public examinations have affirmed that mother-tongue teaching is effective in helping students acquire subject knowledge, enhancing their interests in learning and improving their prospects for further studies. The EDB has also gradually put in place various measures to strengthen English teaching at all levels and raise the overall English standards of our students.
The spokesman said, "Some stakeholders hold the view that the MOI policy should align with the objective of fostering our students to be biliterate and trilingual. Taking into account student abilities and learning needs, schools should be given greater flexibility to provide students with an adequate Chinese and English learning environment."
"On the other hand, some stakeholders are concerned that the review mechanism of the MOI policy which will start in 2010 with a review cycle of six years will impose immeasurable pressure on the school sector and may even hinder the steady development of schools. Furthermore, accommodation and deployment of teachers will also be limited," he said.
The spokesman said, "The EDB is pleased to listen to stakeholders' opinions on whether schools, when implementing the policy, can be given more room to adjust their MOI according to students' learning progress and learning needs, and in so doing give students more exposure to both Chinese and English. When considering this issue, the Bureau will focus on the benefits for our students. We would also like to rectify the community's perceptions on the labels of 'English medium schools' and 'Chinese medium schools' as such lop-sided perceptions will not help promote the policy of biliteracy and trilingualism.
"It is not the Government's objective to overturn the existing MOI policy. We are only aiming at making adjustments to the implementation details on a need basis, to ensure that the policy could better align with the present circumstances and needs of the community. There must be a proper mechanism for implementing the policy and for facilitating stable school development," the spokesman remarked.
Ends/Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Issued at HKT 20:40
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