[EDLING:913] Mother-tongue policy 'boosts HKCEE results'

[Francis M Hult]

By way of the lg-policy list...

> 
> >From the Hong Kong Standard, http://www.thestandard.com.hk
> 
> http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/others/print.htm=0 cellPadding=0
> width=752 align=center border=0>
> 
> Mother-tongue policy 'boosts HKCEE results'
> 
> Winnie Chong
> 
> August 10, 2005
> 
> Mother-tongue teaching is the major reason for improvement in English and
> overall Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) results,
> Education and Manpower Bureau officials said Tuesday. However, as more
> students chose to sit for English SyllabusA, which is easier than English
> SyllabusB, it is hard to say if students had really improved their
> language skills under the mother-tongue policy, one educator said. The
> HKCEE results will be released today.
> 
> Education and Manpower Bureau principal assistant secretary Lam Fan
> Kit-fong said this year's results were better than last year's. The pass
> rate for English SyllabusA rose by 3.3 percentage points to 52.2 percent,
> while that for English SyllabusB rose from 70.2 percent to 74.8 percent.
> There was also a slight improvement in Chinese, from last year's 68.8
> percent to 69.9 percent.
> 
> Some 52.1 percent students obtained grade E or better in five or more
> subjects - including Chinese, English (Syllabus A and B) and Mathematics,
> a rise of 0.9 percentage points from last year's 51.2 percent. A total of
> 119,471 candidates sat for the HKCEE, 65 percent of whom were day school
> students. A further 28 percent were private candidates.
> 
> About 74,507 students attempted six or more subjects, with 46,765 meeting
> the Secondary Six admission requirements. The number of day school
> candidates sitting for Syllabus A increased by 25.3 percent, from 22,933
> in 2004 to 28,733 this year. The number sitting for Syllabus B dropped
> from 50,978 to 48,276.
> 
> Lam attributed the overall improvement in results to the government's
> mother-tongue teaching policy. ``Learning through one's mother-tongue is
> definitely more efficient,'' Lam stressed. Education Convergence
> vice-chairman Choi Kwok-kwong said with more students sitting for the
> relatively easier English Syllabus A, the so-called higher pass rate would
> not be a true indication of the English level attained by the students.
> 
> ``The biggest concern is whether the overall standard of English has
> worsened because of less exposure to the English language,'' Choi said.
> This year's Secondary Five students are the third batch affected by the
> government's 1998 decision forcing 300 of the 412 public secondary schools
> to adopt Chinese as the medium of instruction starting from Secondary
> Three.
> 
> University of Hong Kong faculty of education associate dean Tse Shek-kam
> said more students chose to take Syllabus A as it was easier to pass.
> ``But it is good for students as a pass in English is necessary if they
> wish to continue tertiary education,'' Tse said.
> 
> winnie.chong at singtaonewscorp.com