After decades of debate, authorities and the education sector say it is the right time to adjust the language policy, but some argue that the move is mainly political.
Suri Chan Tin-wing, a first-year English major at theThe Chinese University of Hong Kong, found herself struggling to write her first creative short story – a 300-word assignment for the compulsory course “Introduction to Literature”.
Throughout her secondary schooling at Yan Chai Hospital Law Chan Chor Si College in Kowloon Bay, only science subjects, such as maths and biology, were taught in English as the school adopted Chinese as the medium of instruction (CMI).
Chan, 19, felt that she lacked the vocabulary needed to tell an engaging story and often compared herself with peers from schools where English was the medium of instruction (EMI).
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I felt hesitant the moment I started writing,” she said. “I questioned whether my plot would be as well written or creative as those of students from EMI schools. I thought my writing was formulaic and lagged behind.
Chan said she was not alone, as her struggles were shared by many other students who graduated from CMI schools when they entered higher education.
The education sector is now expecting that aReview of the policyOn the medium of instruction (MOI), more junior secondary school students will be allowed to attend classes in English. A veteran involved in formulating the MOI policy over the years said the issue was also political as it affected schools’ survival.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin on Thursdayrevealed the approachof the review, which would be to base future policy on Hong Kong as a cosmopolitan city, developments in learning and teaching and equipping students.
Open to suggestions
Choi said the current policy was too strict in only allowing the top 40 percent of students to study in English in junior secondary schools, despite the sector’s many improvements. It made her think the threshold of 40 percent could be relaxed.
“We have implemented many different supporting measures such as digital education, and in fact there is no big difference in the language environment and teachers’ qualifications [among schools],” she said.
I think it is worth considering whether we should strictly take into account this ‘student criteria’. Therefore, we will review the future policy of MOI based on the new development model of our learning and teaching.
She added that the authorities would also take reference from a study that the bureau had commissioned.University of Hong Kongto conduct.
Choi said she was also open to reviewing the duration of the cycle, as she wanted to optimize the mechanism so it would be less complicated.
“I am open to suggestions whether the duration should be kept at six years,” she said.
The MOI policy has been debated in the education sector since the 1990s, greatly affecting the popularity of secondary schools, as parents and students regard EMI schools as elite, with a much higher rate of students entering universities than CMI counterparts.
In 1997, the then Education Department issued “strong guidance” that mother tongue teaching – using Chinese – should primarily be adopted as the MOI for secondary schools.
Schools that wished to use English as the MOI had to meet three criteria: students needed to have the ability to learn through English; teachers had to be capable of teaching through English; and schools were required to provide adequate support measures.
The policy was reaffirmed in 2005 after an extensive consultation process conducted by a working group on the review of MOI, led by Michael Tien Puk-sun, then chairman of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research.
The group’s report was in favor of maintaining a strict divide between English- and Chinese-medium secondary schools, and categorically ruled out language streaming within schools, stating that this would create a labeling effect on students within the same institution and intensify competition among schools based on the number of English classes offered.
It introduced the six-year cycle to allow schools to become EMI after meeting the criteria, while those not meeting the requirements would use Chinese as the medium of instruction.
A school in which 85 per cent of its Form One intake ranked in the top 40 per cent of all students citywide over the previous two years of the previous cycle can use English as its MOI.
The government refined the MOI policy in the 2010-11 academic year, allowing institutions to adopt a “within-school streaming approach” and choose English as the medium of instruction for a maximum of two non-language subjects.
Those using English for all classes are regarded as EMI schools. The rest are allowed to run a certain number of EMI classes, use English to teach some subjects or fully adopt CMI.
Currently, 114 out of 385 public secondary schools operate only EMI classes, accounting for around 30 per cent of the total, while the remaining 271 are either CMI schools or adopt English to teach some classes and subjects.
Lee Yi-ying, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, said the proportion of students pursuing tertiary education was among the important reasons for the authorities to consider the future MOI policy.
“Since students in tertiary institutions are taught in English, it will greatly help them in their learning if they are exposed to an English teaching environment and learning materials from the time they enter secondary school,” she said.
We want to better equip students with better English proficiency for their tertiary education.
An annual survey by the Education Bureau covering about 41,000 Form Six graduates in 2024 found that 95 per cent continued full-time studies after secondary school.
Among them, 49 percent were taking bachelor’s degrees while 34 percent were in post-secondary programs, meaning 83 percent of those pursuing further studies had entered tertiary education, where most courses are conducted in English.
Lee also pointed out that Hong Kong’s goals of developing itself into a global “superconnector” and an international education hub were other reasons for the city to enhance the English proficiency of young students.
She added that the continuing professional development of teachers in the past two decades had also enhanced their ability to teach in English.
Public secondary schools have also questioned why semi-private schools operating under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) – which are heavily subsidised by the government – are allowed to decide their own MOI, a key selling point that attracts parents. Hong Kong has 56 DSS secondary schools, most of which have adopted EMI.
A principal who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was ironic that DSS schools could freely choose their MOI regardless of the performance of their student intakes.
“Why are DSS schools allowed to decide their MOI even if they admit non-EMI-capable students, while subsidised schools have to meet the government requirements to teach in English? I think no one can answer this question,” the head said.
More flexibility wanted
Kam Wai-ming, principal of HKSKH Bishop Hall Secondary School, a subsidized school in Sau Mau Ping that uses Chinese as the medium of instruction, said he also hoped the policy could become more flexible in the future as students needed greater exposure to English in the learning environment.
“I think the effectiveness would be greater if the government could offer us more flexibility and let us decide. I think the threshold which determines whether the class is allowed to use EMI could be relaxed,” he said, referring to the 85 per cent level.
Students going to tertiary institutions have to use English … Hong Kong is an international city; students should learn English as much as possible from a young age.
Asked whether schools would adopt EMI regardless of students’ abilities due to its popularity among parents and pupils, Kam argued that one should not underestimate students’ learning potential.
“If you judge it’s too early for students to learn in English and then do not allow them to do so, they will never learn. But if students are offered an environment where they can learn in English, they might be able to learn and be nurtured,” he said.
The eligibility threshold was set in 2005, a year after the then Education and Manpower Bureau commissioned the Chinese University to conduct studies to assess the percentage of Form One students capable of learning through English. The study found that about 32 to 40 per cent of Form One students at the time were able to learn through English in most subjects.
The working group led by Michael Tien eventually adopted a more lenient approach in proposing the threshold of “EMI-capable” in 2005 and decided that the “top 40 per cent of students” were EMI-capable.
Regarding why an 85 per cent student threshold in a class or school was set for eligibility to adopt EMI, the working group at the time stated that the percentage was acceptable in addressing learner diversity, and the refined policy did not adjust the level.
Tien told the South China Morning Post that many experts at the time said that if students not capable of using English for learning were forced to do so, it would only leave them unable to learn both English and the subjects taught in English.
“The issue is that not every student is good enough to learn other subjects in English. If they have to learn a subject in English, they have to be smart enough first,” he said.
If their abilities are insufficient, forcing them to learn a subject in English will only harm them.
Tien also questioned whether non-language teachers were proficient enough to teach their subjects in English. He said that from his experience visiting schools, he found that some science teachers in EMI schools stammered while teaching their subject in English, and they then had to find time after lessons to explain the concepts in Cantonese.
“It is a waste of time,” he said.
The authorities require non-language subject teachers to obtain level 3 or above in English language in the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), the university entrance exam, if they have to teach in an EMI class, while Tien said they should have at least level 4 under the seven-level grading system, with 5** being the highest.
Around 55 per cent of school candidates achieved level 3 or above in the 2025 DSE, while 28.4 per cent reached level 4.
“I am not convinced a person who got level 3 can teach a subject in English,” he said.
Facing calls for more flexibility and letting more students learn in English in the future, Tien expressed concern that some pupils might lose out.
He argued that students who were good at a science elective but poor in English might be hindered from achieving a better grade in the DSE if they were forced to study the subject in English, and it would reduce their chances of entering university.
Tien, a former legislator, said MOI was ultimately a political decision related to the issue of school survival.
“If schools do not have EMI as their selling point, they are afraid they will not be able to admit sufficient students. It is a political game. The government made the concessions [the fine-tuned policy] to let schools survive,” Tien said.
Brighter future?
The drop in the student population has increased schools’ concerns about not being able to enroll enough of the top 40 percent of EMI-capable students to maintain their number of EMI classes, according to some principals.
Tien said that if the authorities decided to expand the proportion of EMI-capable students from the top 40 percent to a higher percentage, they would have to convince the public that the English proficiency of primary school graduates had greatly improved.
In the last cycle, three schools became institutions operating all EMI classes, a status seen as a mark of prestige and recognition after years of work to improve learning and teaching.
One of them is the Hong Kong Management Association K.S. Lo College in Tin Shui Wai. Principal Leung Kwok-kei said his school had worked hard to achieve such a status, progressing from two Form One classes adopting EMI to now all four.
He said EMI was like a brand name sought after by parents, one that could guarantee student enrollment, as the number of applications to his school had remained steady in recent years, despite the drop in the city’s student population.
“It is a belief among parents that the learning environment of an EMI school is better and the future of the students will also be brighter,” he said.
It was a long journey for us. We’re not talking about one or two years. In fact, we admitted top-band students six years ago, but we could only switch to all EMI classes in the 2022-23 school year under the six-year cycle.
Looking back at studying in a CMI learning environment, first-year university student Suri Chan agreed that more schools should adopt English as the medium of instruction to better prepare students for higher education. However, the transition should be phased to avoid disadvantaging mainland Chinese students or those with weaker English skills, she added.
“I’ve noticed that CMI students often struggle with academic writing or reading journal articles at university,” she said.
If more [school] subjects were taught in English, students would feel more confident.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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