Seventy-seven Canadians have been selected to teach English classes in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) schools starting from the new academic year in September, 1998, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the SAR Government in Canada, Donald Tong said today (June 15).

Letters of appointment are being sent out by the SAR's Education Department to the 77 candidates selected from the pool of 160 Canadians interviewed in Toronto and Vancouver in May, he said.

"A total of 257 successful candidates have been offered appointments. Apart from the Canadians, there are 180 successful applicants from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong." Mr. Tong said.

The recruitment of the teachers, under the Native-Speaking English Teachers (NET) scheme, is aimed at improving the standard and proficiency in the use of English in Government and Government subvented secondary schools.

The SAR schools need more than 700 NET scheme teachers over the next few years. The recruitment of the NET teachers is expected to cost a total of about C$83 million a year in salaries, benefits and other expenses.

The newly recruited teachers will teach English to Chinese ESL (English as Second Language) students at the secondary level, (equivalent to grades 7-12 in Canada) and help create an environment for students to speak English in Schools.

Mr. Tong added that in order to keep the SAR on the cutting edge, the government must invest in people, and that is in education.