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The Permanent Secretary for Education, Mr Raymond Wong, has encouraged schools to make use of the flexibility under the fine-tuned medium of instruction (MOI) policy for secondary schools to formulate and develop whole-school language policy in accordance with their students' abilities, interests and learning needs.
At an empowerment workshop on "Whole-school Language Policy" held by the Education Bureau (EDB) today (September 24), Mr Wong also appealed to schools to create a conducive environment for students' language learning to enhance their learning effectiveness.
Mr Wong said, "Under the fine-tuned MOI arrangements, schools can use English as the medium of instruction at varying degrees in non-language subjects provided that these arrangements are made in accordance with an orderly and structured framework.
"We hope schools will create an English-rich environment to provide students with more opportunities to use English purposefully."
The Empowerment Workshop Series aims to facilitate secondary schools to devise whole-school language strategies and measures to pave the way for implementation of the fine-tuned MOI arrangements for schools starting with Secondary 1 in September 2010. The workshop provided a platform for schools to share information, experiences and insights to facilitate the development of their whole-school language policy.
The 11th in the workshop series was held at the Buddhist Lim Kim Tian Memorial Primary School today. The programme included an expert talk on creating an English-rich environment in schools, an introduction to the concepts and points to note in the formulation of whole-school language policy, and a sharing session hosted by a secondary school practising whole-school language policy.
Mr Wong emphasised at today's workshop that the Education Bureau would support schools to implement effectively the fine-tuned MOI arrangements and a series of professional development programmes would be organised in addition to the current workshop series.
The programmes, expected to begin next March/April, would include training courses for non-language subject teachers using English as the MOI, school-based support programmes on raising awareness of whole-school language planning and professional competence at the school-level. The objective is to enable teachers to master how to employ teaching strategies, curriculum design, and collaboration across subjects/key learning areas, and how to make use of the flexibility allowed under fine-tuned MOI strategies so that students will learn the subject contents effectively as well as enhance their generic skills in self-learning.
The bureau would also organise district-based parent briefings in December before the Discretionary Places Stage of the Secondary School Places Allocation. The briefings are to help parents understand the objectives of the MOI fine-tuning and the MOI arrangements at junior secondary levels. The purpose is to assist parents in making appropriate school choices on the understanding that the whole-school language policies that schools devised professionally with reference to the needs of students do form the basis for effective learning, and that MOI should not be the sole factor for consideration.
Ends/Thursday, September 24, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:13
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