15. We feel it necessary to stress that the syllabuses issued by the Education Department are not intended in any way to be mandatory. They are suggested syllabuses only and schools are free to adapt and experiment. The majority of schools do not at present avail them- selves of the opportunities which already exist for experimentation and selection afforded them. Officers in the Education Department help schools to modify suggested syllabuses to suit the needs of their students, and encourage teachers to develop their own ideas. We recommend that this work should be actively developed and extended. Our recom- mendation should encourage all schools to broaden the base of their courses and to be less academic than they are at present, especially in the lower forms. With the help of the Education Department and with the co-operation of heads of schools, there should be the widest discus- sion of the future role of secondary schools in Hong Kong.
16. The medium of instruction bears significantly upon the quality of education offered at post-primary level. Pupils coming from primary schools where they have been taught in the medium of Cantonese have a grievous burden put on them when required to absorb new subjects through the medium of English. We recommend that Chinese become the usual language of instruction in the lower forms of secondary schools, and that English should be studied as the second language. We recommend that every effort be made to develop good textbooks for all subjects written in Chinese, to train teachers capable of instructing through the medium of Chinese, and to adopt improved techniques of language teaching for both Chinese and English. Whilst we are aware that our recommending Chinese as the language of instruction in lower secondary forms will affect the large number of children who will com- plete their education at Form 3 level and for whom a high standard of English will not be essential to gain employment, we are nevertheless conscious of the need to maintain and improve standards in the teach- ing of English for those who will proceed beyond Form 3 level in preparation for continuing their education at the tertiary level.
17. With the introduction of Chinese as the medium of instruction at lower forms, greater emphasis will need to be placed on the teaching of English in the upper forms to ensure that students are given the opportunity to become genuinely bi-lingual, so obviating the need for tuition in the English language at tertiary level in their education. In this connection, we have noted that many countries in South East Asia
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