South China's Guangdong Province plans to require some senior high schools to incorporate the English language through their curriculums in an attempt to help mainland southerners match the English proficiency of residents in neighboring Hong Kong.

The measure, currently being introduced on a trial basis, requires junior and senior high school graduates province wide to demonstrate significant average improvement in English proficiency by the year 2005 and insists that students in major cities and areas around the provincial capital of Guangzhou must acquire the same command of English enjoyed by people in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

The plan will be instituted initially in ten classes at five provincial-controlled senior high schools. All the students at the experimented schools will be required to master the basics of at least one foreign language, according to a report on xinhuanet.com.

The plan also calls for Guangdong to combine information technology with English teaching and requires provincial senior high schools to employ at least one foreign teacher. All English teachers will be required to give lessons entirely in English while some of the province's better senior high schools will be encouraged to introduce bilingual teaching in non-English subjects.

According to the provincial Education Commission, efforts will soon be underway to collect appropriate English textbooks and develop corresponding teaching software.

The commission also revealed it plans to add a foreign language oral examination to the graduation requirements for junior and senior high schools in the province.

(China Daily 10/10/2001)