Pass rates of nearly all major subjects in Chinese-medium schools have risen, a preliminary analysis of HK Certificate of Education Examination results by the Education & Manpower Bureau says.

The first cohort of students admitted to Secondary One upon the introduction of the Government's medium of instruction guidelines in 1998 sat for the HKCEE this year.

Starting from the 1998/99 school year, about 300 secondary schools adopted Chinese as their medium of instruction at junior levels, while 112 English-medium schools continued teaching in English.

Principal Assistant Secretary for Education & Manpower Fanny Lam said a preliminary comparison of schools' HKCEE performances in 2002 and 2003 showed there has been a general increase in the proportion of students obtaining five subject passes or more in Chinese-medium schools.

The rise has been seen in Chinese, history, geography, chemistry and mathematics in all ability groups.

For economics, biology, physics and Chinese history, there is an increase in the pass rates in the high ability group and no change in the medium ability group, except for physics.

For English, there is an increase in the pass rate among the students with high ability but a drop among other ability groups.

Mrs Lam said the finding is understandable as the guidelines were first implemented in 1998/99 during which necessary support measures were in early stages of development.

However, she was pleased to note that some Chinese-medium schools have seen their support programme begin to bear fruit, with a remarkable increase in the pass rate of English.

"It shows that the adoption of Chinese medium instruction does not necessarily imply a drop in English proficiency if there are support and teaching strategies to ensure adequate and quality exposure to English," Mrs Lam said.