The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, said today that mother-tongue teaching will help students enhance their language proficiency and become "biliterate and trilingual", which is one of the educational goals of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

During his visit to Pui Ching Middle School in Kowloon City this afternoon, Mr Tung stressed that the Government's educational policy on language was to provide an appropriate environment and adequate resources for students to become "biliterate and trilingual", so that they would be proficient in writing English and Chinese, and could speak fluent Cantonese, English and Putonghua.

He said that both overseas and local studies indicated that mother-tongue teaching was the most effective means for students. In addition, students with good Chinese language ability can, in the long term, help forge good economic and trade relationships between Hong Kong and the Mainland and strengthen the SAR's role as a bridge linking the Mainland to the outside world.

Mr Tung said: "Mother-tongue teaching is complementary rather than contradictory to improving students' English language standards and overall academic performance.

"The provision of good quality education depends on the educational methods adopted by schools. The academic results achieved by schools are determined by a number of factors, such as the goals they set, their experiences, the quality of the principals and teachers and the teaching environment.

"The Government and the community together will provide guidance and gradually proficiency in Chinese language will become a prerequisite for further study and job-seeking," he said.

"We will allocate more resources in the future to support those schools using mother-tongue as a medium of instruction. For example, we will actively consider setting aside funds from the Quality Education Development Fund, which will be set up soon, for conducting studies to further enhance the effectiveness of mother-tongue teaching and to encourage more schools to adopt mother-tongue as a medium of teaching, " he added.

During his visit to Pui Ching Middle School in Kowloon City and Tak Sun School in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mr Tung observed students attending classes and was briefed on the various advanced teaching equipment being used.

He praised Pui Ching Middle School for both its outstanding academic results and its emphasis on the overall development of students. Many of the students excelled in extra-curricular activities such as sports, music, drama and computer studies.

Mr Tung believed that following the widespread implementation of mother-tongue teaching, more schools using Chinese as a medium of teaching will become elite schools.

Before concluding his visit, Mr Tung met with the provisional district board members and community leaders of Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City and Yau Tsim Mong districts at the Henry G Leong Yau Ma Tei Community Centre to exchange views on district issues .

Accompanying the Chief Executive were the Director of Education, Mrs Helen C P Lai Yu; the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr David Lan; the Director of Home Affairs, Mrs Shelley Lau; Sham Shui Po District Officer, Mrs Ingrid Yeung; Kowloon City District Officer, Mr Charles Chan, and Yau Tsim Mong District Officer, Ms Rebecca Pun.