I would like to assure John Smith of Shamshuipo 'Lesson in English loss' (South China Morning Post, September 1) the Education Department (ED) will be monitoring very closely the implementation of medium of instruction in schools. Starting from this month, several measures shall be taken.
There will be focused inspections of schools. This means inspectors from the ED will be visiting schools to ensure the appropriate medium, as reported by the school and approved by the ED, is being used.
Schools using Chinese as a medium of instruction will be provided with two one-off grants. They are for an enhanced school-based English programme with priority for Secondary I students and the setting up of an English Corner, where English may be used in a more relaxed and congenial environment. These schools are also provided with additional recurrent English grants for S1 to S5 classes.
Schools adopting Chinese as a medium of instruction at S1 to S5 are provided with additional English teachers.
To help improve the standard of English of the students, 320 native-English speaking teachers have joined schools. Eventually, it is hoped, all secondary schools will have at least one native-speaker, in addition to the school's own English language teachers.
To ensure the standards and proficiency of language teachers, benchmarks will be set and teachers will be assessed according to these benchmarks. A pilot exercise will be carried out in the 1998/99 school year. Teachers who are found not to have reached the benchmarks will be provided with further training.
