The Education Bureau has submitted a Legislative Council paper proposing to fine-tune the medium of instruction (MOI) for secondary schools to give students more exposure to English and improve their learning of the language.

According to the proposal, if the average proportion of Secondary One intake of a school admitted to a class belonging to the top 40% group in the previous two years reaches 85% of the class size, the school will be given full flexibility in determining the MOI arrangement. For other classes students will mainly learn in their mother tongue.

More flexibility

Under the proposed fine-tuning there will no longer be pure bifurcation of schools into Chinese-medium schools and English-medium schools. The move will bring a wider spectrum of MOI arrangements, including total Chinese- or English-medium instruction, English in a few subjects or English by immersion.

The bureau aims to uphold mother-tongue teaching and enhance proficiency in Chinese and English. The fine-tuned MOI arrangements will take effect in the 2010-11 school year and the framework be finalised in May.

According to the paper schools can exercise flexibility by class, by group, by subject and by session arrangements, having regard to its own circumstances, including the needs of students, the capability and readiness of teachers, and school-based support measures.

To enhance the English learning environment for students who mainly learn in their mother tongue, the percentage of total lesson time allowed for English-medium extended learning activities will be increased. The English learning environment of schools will be significantly enhanced.

The Education Bureau will conduct an external assessment and enhance inspections to help schools review the effectiveness of their MOI arrangements. An advisory panel drawn from the education sector will be formed to consider observations and findings made in the inspections, and make recommendations to the bureau on follow-up action.

Teacher support

To better understand the practicality and acceptability of the fine-tuning proposals at the school level, the bureau has conducted wide consultation with different groups of stakeholders since the last report to the Legislative Council Panel on Education in July.

The bureau will allocate $640 million from 2010 to 2014 for training and professional support for teachers who are switching from teaching in Chinese to English. The money will also be used for a large-scale study to develop effective teaching resources and provide professional support to 200 schools and their teachers.

To attract suitable teachers the bureau will establish a scholarship for qualified school graduates planning to pursue a degree and teacher training in English. The scholarship will incur a recurrent cost of $14 million annually.

About $310 million will be incurred during the five-year period from 2010 to 2014 to promote professional development of teachers to enhance learning and teaching of English in primary schools.