Support guaranteed: Michael Suen says the bureau will support teachers with comprehensive professional development programmes to help them implement the school-based medium of instruction.

The Education Bureau will support teachers with comprehensive professional development programmes to help them implement the school-based medium of instruction, the Secretary for Education Michael Suen said today.

The training courses will be launched in March and April next year and the bureau will provide supply teachers to the schools.

It will also conduct a longitudinal study to evaluate the effectiveness of school-based medium of instruction arrangements and to develop effective teaching resources.

Speaking at the Knowledge Fair 2009 today, Mr Suen said he was pleased to learn most schools have made good use of the fine tuning's flexibility to choose their diversified medium of instruction arrangements, having regard to students' needs and their schools' circumstances.

These include teaching different classes, groups or subjects in Chinese or English, or adopting extended learning activities in English under the mother-tongue teaching, he said.

He hopes schools will progressively increase students' opportunities to be exposed to and use English at junior secondary levels, which will facilitate their transition to the use of the medium at senior secondary levels.

According to the fine-tuned arrangements, starting from Secondary One in the 2010/11 school year, schools will no longer be classified into Chinese-medium and English-medium schools.

In tandem with the issue of the Secondary School Profiles next month, the bureau will conduct briefing sessions for parents to help them choose their children's schools.