XN000022-1997-03-27 — Page 19

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These schools should progressively adopt Chinese as the medium of instruction unless they have the Director of Education's prior approval to teach in English.

Only schools with evidence of suitable student ability and teacher capability may apply to the Director of Education for special approval to use English as their teaching medium.

An individual school will not be allowed to operate both Chinese-medium and English-medium classes.

In applying for teaching in English, a school should satisfy the Education Department that it has, for the past three years, an average of 85 per cent Medium of Instruction Grouping Assessment (MIGA) Groups I and III students in its $1 intake.

The Secondary School Places Allocation System will remain unchanged.

The Director of Education, Mrs Helen CP Lai Yu, said: "Since 1986, it has been Government policy to persuade schools to adopt Chinese as their medium of instruction. This is because the mother tongue is recognised worldwide as the most effective medium of instruction. Government's policy was endorsed by the Education Commission in its report No. 4 in 1990,

"In 1996, the Education Commission in its Report No. 6 further recommended that the Education Department should publish its advice in 1997 for adoption by schools in 1998. These Education Commission reports have been the subject of extensive public consultation on each occasion.

"Our firm guidance aims also to eliminate the situation in which schools claim that they adopt one medium of instruction but practise another."

The Education Department will intensify inspections of schools given approval to teach in English.

Schools which fail to observe the firm guidance will face sanctions, as suggested in ECR6.

The Education Department has over the years adopted a series of measures to support schools teaching in Chinese. These include additional teachers of English; additional wirefree induction loop system to enhance teaching through listening; and library grant for additional reading materials and other English teaching aids.

In addition, training courses are organised to prepare teachers to teach in Chinese. There was also a Chinese Textbooks Incentive Award Scheme to encourage publishers to produce good quality Chinese textbooks and an English-Chinese glossary of terms to assist teachers to teach in Chinese.