The most important objective of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government's policy on the medium of instruction is to strengthen the teaching and learning of Chinese and English to enable the Hong Kong students to be biliterate (able to read and write Chinese and English) and trilingual (fluent in spoken Putonghua, Cantonese and English), Mr. Donald Tong, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of SAR Government said today (April 14).

And the best way to achieve this goal, according to research worldwide and in Hong Kong, is to use mother-tongue (i.e. Chinese) teaching, he stressed.

"An appropriate medium of instruction is crucial to a student's effective learning. Students generally learn better through their mother tongue as they will be able to understand better what is taught, analyse problems, express views, develop an inquisitive mind and cultivate critical thinking," Mr Tong said.

Mr Tong explained that the introduction of mother-tongue teaching from September 1998, will not downgrade the use of English in schools as both Chinese and English are official languages in the SAR.

He said: "There are some concerns that Hong Kong is no longer attaching importance to English after the handover. I would like to clarify beyond doubt that this is totally untrue. Hong Kong is an international city and our working population and students must continue to maintain an excellent command of English. We will not allow and cannot afford a deterioration of English standard."

He pointed out that the mother tongue teaching policy had in fact been established in the mid-eighties and that the policy commitment to issue firm guidance on the medium of instruction for secondary schools (equivalent to Grade 7 - 13 in Canada) was announced in 1994 -- well before July 1997 when China resumed exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong.

The guidance provides that:

� schools should adopt Chinese for teaching all academic subjects, starting with the 1998/99 Secondary One intake and progressing each year to a higher level of education; and

� schools which want to use English as medium of instruction must satisfy three criteria, i.e. students' ability, teachers' capability and support strategies.