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The Under Secretary for Education, Mr Kenneth Chen, today (November 20) said at the half-yearly sharing session on fine-tuning the medium of instruction (MOI) for secondary schools that the Government has invested substantially in developing support measures for schools to grasp the golden opportunity through MOI fine-tuning to achieve the target of "Enriching Our Language Environment and Realising Our Vision".
The support measures include the implementation of school-based English enhancement programmes, and the organisation of professional development programmes of diversified modes and experience-sharing sessions to facilitate teachers to achieve the best results.
Mr Chen said: "Since we do not have a rich English language environment in our society, we need to enhance our students' exposure to and use of English through their school education, and particularly in the classroom setting. Within the school context, we can best equip them with the ability to learn in English so as to facilitate them to face future challenges and become proficient in both Chinese and English to strengthen Hong Kong's status as an international city."
Since 2006, about $700 million has been approved after the Government's injection into the Language Fund for more than 400 secondary schools to join the English Enhancement Scheme. Under this scheme, schools can implement school-based measures normally over a period of six years to enrich their English learning environment, to enhance teachers' professional capability and to raise their students' English standard.
Following MOI fine-tuning, the Government has earmarked additional funding of about $320 million for a two-year Refined English Enhancement Scheme. With this scheme, schools can refine their existing school-based measures or initiate new measures to further enhance students' English standard to tie in with their whole-school language policy and diversified MOI arrangements.
"I am pleased to learn that more than 400 schools have expressed their interest to join since the launching of the scheme earlier this school year. My colleagues in the Education Bureau are actively following up with schools to consider their proposals and arrange the funding," Mr Chen said.
Mr Chen added: "The best complement for MOI fine-tuning in secondary schools is to build a solid English language foundation for pupils at primary levels. At present, 230 primary schools are already making use of some $110 million to enhance the learning and teaching of English under the English Enhancement Grant Scheme for Primary Schools. The remaining primary schools will be submitting their applications shortly."
In the first part of the sharing session, a keynote speech on "Learning English and learning in English: Getting in tune with our students' needs" was jointly delivered by Dr KK Tong, the Programme Director of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education (Language Education) and Teaching Fellow of the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong; and Dr Evelyn Man, Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The second part started with a speech by Dr Angel Lin, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong, on "Strategies in developing language across the curriculum", followed by teachers of Munsang College to share their experience on strategies in developing language across the curriculum.
More than 300 secondary school heads and teachers joined the sharing session. This sharing session was the third of the half-yearly events following the Knowledge Fair 2009 held in November 2009 and Reading Fair 2010 in April this year.
Ends/Saturday, November 20, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:16
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