8
Education
exchange programmes and territory-wide student activities, such as the inter-school Basic Law competition.
Elements of Basic Law education have long been incorporated into the curricula and learning activities of primary and secondary schools, including General Studies at primary level, Life and Society and Geography at junior secondary level, and Chinese History and History at secondary level.
Language Education
The government's language education policy is to train the younger generation to become biliterate in written Chinese and English and trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and spoken English.
At the same time, the government believes students should undertake their general education in a language that is not itself a barrier to learning. The policy on medium of instruction is therefore to uphold mother-tongue teaching while enhancing students' proficiency in both Chinese and English. Public-sector primary schools generally teach in Chinese. Public-sector secondary schools can increase junior secondary students' opportunities for exposure to, and use of, English, taking into account their ability and desire to learn in English, teachers' capability and readiness to teach in English, and support measures to facilitate learning in English. At senior secondary level, schools can select either Chinese or English as the medium of instruction on a subject basis.
Schools are encouraged to devise a whole-school language policy in line with the policy goal. on medium of instruction, sustain their good practices in promoting language learning and deepen the impact of 'reading to learn' by extending it to language across the curriculum through exposing students to a variety of texts of different themes. Schools are also encouraged to leverage technology to provide opportunities to read and write across the curriculum through the use of printed and multimodal texts to motivate students, broaden their knowledge and help them relate the language to different subjects.
Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme
There are about 400 Native-speaking English Teachers (NETs) working in secondary schools and about 470 NETS in primary schools. They collaborate with local English teachers to enhance English language learning and teaching and make English learning experiences more authentic for students. They also help create a rich English language environment and promote innovative teaching strategies. Overall, the scheme improves classroom practices and students' attitudes towards learning English.
Non-Chinese-speaking Students
The government encourages and supports the integration of non-Chinese-speaking (NCS) students into the community, including by facilitating their early adaptation to the local education system and mastery of the Chinese language. The Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework helps primary and secondary NCS students overcome difficulties in learning Chinese as a second language. Complementary measures include
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