It is one of the most fundamental questions facing the local education system: should secondary school students be taught in English or Chinese? And although most people involved - from parents to teachers to government officials - may feel the answer is pretty obvious, they don't tend to agree on which one it is. The issue, which had seemed settled since 2005 following an extensive review and highly contentious consultation process, is now firmly back on the political agenda.
Eight days ago, Education Secretary Michael Suen Ming-yeung gave his strongest hint yet that the medium-of-instruction policy was in line for a significant rethink.
Mr Suen has been consulting with secondary school bodies on the policy since November. That's when he announced plans for a review ahead of the introduction of new rules governing which language schools could use in the classroom, due to come into force in 2010.
Those rules, the result of the 2005 consultation, were to retain the strict distinction between English-medium secondary schools and Chinese-medium schools, a product of the mother-tongue education policy introduced in 1998.
Schools had been told they would need to ensure that at least 85 per cent of their Form One intake was in the top 40 per cent of students - the group deemed capable of learning in English - if they were to continue using English in classes.
However, last week Mr Suen said he was keen to exercise greater flexibility in how the policy would be enforced, and hinted he was open to allowing language streaming according to class or subject within individual schools.