- 10
A
subjects in the normal curriculum the two languages are also used
as the media of instruction for other subjects. The teaching of
Mandarin (or Putonghua) and its use as the medium of instruction
are at present very restricted, but the Education Department is
planning a pilot scheme to introduce Putonghua as a teaching subject
in a limited number of schools. Virtually all kindergartens use
Chinese as the language of instruction and, against the advice of
the Education Department, largely in response to parental expectations,
teach a rudimentary form of English. In the primary sector Chinese
is used in all except about 50 (of a total of 882) operating schools,
with English taught as a second language. (The relatively few
primary schools using English as the language of instruction are
mostly long-established schools of missionary origin which were
developed together with English-medium secondary schools under the
same or associated management.)
2.16
At secondary level the two categories of school, Anglo-
Chinese and Chinese Middle, were originally clearly differentiated
by language-medium as well as course-structure, Anglo-Chinese schools
using English as the language of instruction and Chinese Middle
schools using Chinese. However, this distinction has become eroded
with the expansion of secondary education, and teachers in most
Anglo-Chinese schools now find it necessary to use Chinese in
varying degrees to supplement their teaching in the medium of
English particularly with less able pupils and with lower forms.
There is an additional complication in that a few schools operate
both Chinese Middle and Anglo-Chinese streams. The proportion of
secondary pupils studying solely through the medium of Chinese has
declined very considerably since 1945 and is now only approximately
13 per cent. For some years, too, all newly-established secondary