Colleges and universities across China will launch bilingual education to meet the need for bilingual personnel after the country's accession to the World Trade Organization.

Major courses such as information technology, bio-technology, new material technology, finance and law will be given in both Chinese and English; Monday's Beijing Youth Daily quoted a source from the Ministry of Education as saying.

Five to ten percent of the total courses will be taught in English, Zhang Yaoxue, an official in charge of higher education, was quoted as saying.

Bilingual education is not new in China. A number of primary and secondary schools and even some kindergartens in Shanghai and Beijing have been teaching in English.

"Bilingual education does not simply improve the students' oral English," the daily quoted Tang Shengchang, principal of a Shanghai-based secondary school, "It improves their overall linguistic ability and enables them to think in a second language."

Most bilingual schools in Shanghai have adopted original editions of textbooks from English-speaking countries and first- hand material downloaded from the Internet, so that the students can learn in a "pure English environment," Tang was quoted as saying.

However, the scarcity of bilingual teachers has become a major problem that hinders the development of bilingual education in China, as few seasoned science teachers speak good English, and English-speakers may not be able to give science lectures.

To solve this problem, the Ministry of Education will send more Chinese teachers to receive training overseas, said Zhang. "The first group will leave at the end of this year," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency 09/25/2001)