The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research yesterday endorsed a pilot scheme to promote the use of Putonghua in the teaching of Chinese language subjects in schools.

Participating institutions, however, will not be required to make the national language the exclusive medium of instruction, committee chairman Michael Tien told a press conference after the meeting yesterday.

It was up to the schools to decide the proportion between the use of Putonghua and Cantonese in Chinese language lessons, he explained.

"Some educators believe that it is better to use Cantonese to teach ancient Chinese writings. It is up to the schools to decide," he said.

The scheme will not specify any criteria for assessment, such as Chinese language standards that students need to achieve, at the end of the project, Tien said. But those schools will need to tell the committee their plan to sustain the use of Putonghua in Chinese language lessons after the scheme has ended.

The scheme, which will start receiving applications in March, will fund 30 primary and 10 secondary schools each year in the coming four years to hire substitute teachers.

Each school will be entitled to the funding for three years.

Mainland experts who have the experience using Putonghua to teach Chinese language would be invited to the schools twice a week during the first year to monitor how well they have implemented the plan.

The schools will also need to gradually add five extra Chinese language classes using Putonghua as a teaching medium within the three-year period, Tien said.

He said the financial assist ance to the schools would be suspended if they violate their application proposal.

An application appraisal committee would soon be established, he added.

In fact, educators have been demanding more extensive use of Putonghua in teaching Chinese.

But Tien said a survey of 20 schools adopting the practice conducted by SCOLAR revealed that students in some schools had their written Chinese standard dropped.

"What we need to do the job is not only teachers proficient in Chinese writting and Putonghua speaking. The teaching method needs to be reformed as well," he said.

(HK Edition 10/31/2007 page6)