The Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, Mr. Donald Tong, today (March 18) urged Canadians interested in teaching English in Hong Kong to submit applications to the SAR's Education Department as soon as possible.

He said the recruitment of Native-speaking English Teachers (NET) in overseas countries is part of the department's drive to improve the standard and proficiency in the use of English in Government and Government-subvented schools.

"The teachers will be appointed under a newly-introduced NET scheme which will come into effect from September 1, 1998," Mr. Tong said.

"The NETs will teach English to Chinese ESL (English as Second Language) students at the secondary level, (equivalent to US grades 7 - 12) and help create an environment for students to speak English in school,"

"The deadline for submitting applications is April 8, 1998," Mr. Tong said.

Candidates who wish to apply for the NET posts should be native-speaker of English or have native-speaker English competence and should possess:

� a Bachelor's degree majoring in English Language or Linguistics or English Literature or English Studies or a Modern Language;
� at least 2 years post-graduate experience of teaching English preferably as a second or foreign language at secondary level (US grades 7 - 12) or above, and
� a Post-graduate Certificate in Education or equivalent or a Teaching of English as a Foreign Language or a Second Language (TEFL/TESL) qualification at least at the diploma level.