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Education

Basic Law Education

To promote understanding of the Basic Law among students, the government provides a range of learning and teaching aids for schools. In 2015, the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Basic Law, these included Basic Law teaching videos, an inter-school online quiz competition, and professional development programmes for principals and teachers.

At junior secondary level, subjects such as Life and Society, Chinese History and History include material about the Basic Law. At senior secondary level, the Basic Law is part of Liberal Studies.

Language Education

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research advises the government on language education issues. It also advises the Trustee of the Language Fund (which funds. initiatives to improve Hong Kong people's proficiency in Chinese, including Putonghua, and English languages) on the use of the fund as well as the policy and procedures governing the fund's operation.

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 the learning process. The government's 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, at the junior secondary level, increase students' opportunities for exposure to, and use of, English, taking into account students' ability and desire to learn in English, teachers' capability and readiness to teach in English, and school support measures to facilitate learning in English. At the senior secondary level, schools can select either Chinese or English as the medium of instruction on a subject basis depending on the school context and the readiness and capabilities of both teachers and students.

In line with the policy goal on medium of instruction, schools are encouraged to adopt different strategies, such as creating a rich and motivating environment conducive to language learning, strengthening students' ability to 'learn to read' (i.e. learning to read independently) and to 'read to learn' (i.e. learning to read extensively and acquire knowledge) in both Chinese and English, and promoting language across the curriculum. Schools are also encouraged to provide students with 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 English-speaking Teacher (NET) Scheme

There are more than 400 NETS working in secondary schools and over 450 NETS working in primary schools. NETS collaborate with local English teachers to enhance teaching and make English learning experiences more authentic and engaging for students. They help create an enriched English language environment for students and promote the adoption of more

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