Hong Kong - It's Back To English

Hong Kong Chinese Schools Change Their Language Policy
(Except from The Malay Mail, p.14, Dec 17, 2009)

The number of secondary schools teaching in English will almost double in September next year when the changes take effect, starting from Form One in the next academic year.

Taking advantage of the latest changes in language policy, 16 schools which are now teaching in Chinese will switch to teaching in entirely in English. Another 80 schools will adopt a mixed approach - using Chinese for humanities subjects but using English for science subjects. However, seven schools will do the opposite by switching at least some classes from English to Chinese.

All together there will be 199 schools or nearly half of the 402 secondary schools in Hong Kong will be teaching fully or mainly in English.

Many schools said they made the switch because of an appeal from parents. The principal of one of the schools, said: "Many schools including us, made the switch because of the market or parents' demand."