ENG-2018 — Page 171

Hong Kong Year Books 香港年報 All

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Education

Chinese History subject curriculum framework was promulgated in May 2018 and would be implemented progressively from Secondary 1 in September 2020.

Basic Law Education

The Basic Law is a constitutional document for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). It enshrines within a legal document the important concepts of 'one country, two systems, 'Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong' and a high degree of autonomy. It also prescribes the various systems to be practised in the HKSAR. The Basic Law is related closely to our daily lives.

To support Basic Law education, the government provides schools with support measures, including learning and teaching resources, professional development programmes for principals and teachers, Mainland exchange programmes and territory-wide inter-school Basic Law competitions.

Elements of Basic Law education have long been incorporated into the curricula and learning. activities of primary and secondary schools. The subjects involved include General Studies at primary level, Life and Society and Geography at junior secondary level, Liberal Studies at senior secondary level, and Chinese History and History at secondary levels.

Language Education

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research advises the government on language education issues and on the use of the Language Fund as well as the policy and procedures governing its operation. The fund supports initiatives to improve proficiency in Chinese and English, including Putonghua.

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

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