Following is the transcript of the media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after visiting Central Kowloon district this afternoon:

Question: .. mother tongue teaching .... would the Government come up with....?

CE: I think mother tongue teaching gives a means to achieve a very important objective. The objective is to make all of us in Hong Kong to be fluent both in speaking and in writing in Cantonese, Mandarin and also in English. And from all the studies we've done, and also experts from overseas, the best way to achieve it is through mother tongue teaching. And the fundamental policy would not change. There will be a period for adjustment and this is now in a period of adjustment.

Question: Would you say that is a failure so far?

CE: No, I won't say that at all.

Question: And how the schools and parents ...?

CE: I think more and more parents understand this. I was at the school just now - Pui Ching - where it is mother tongue teaching, where the examination - the marks scored for English average about eighty versus the average for all the other English "schools" of only about fifty-seven. So, mother tongue teaching is good for students to learn English also.