The Examinations & Assessment Authority today announced results of September's  2003 Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers.

For English papers, the percentages of candidates attaining level three - the basic proficiency requirement for language teachers - are 68% in reading, 32% in writing, 63% in listening, 46% in speaking and 85% in classroom language assessment.

The Education & Manpower Bureau said starting from the current school year, there will be two administrations of the assessment a year instead of one. The overall number of candidates entering the latest one rose nearly 3% on the March assessment.

A total of 2,962 candidates sat for English papers and 1,256 for Putonghua papers. Taking into account the number of candidates entering the next assessment in March, it is believed that the increase in candidates for the 2003-04 school year will be significant.

Based on information supplied by candidates on whether they are serving day-school teachers, it is estimated that 1,930 English teachers and 880 Putonghua teachers sat for the September assessment.

More than half of English, Putonghua teachers have met standards

To date, there are about 14,800 English and 5,600 Putonghua serving teachers in total. Among them, 8,662 English and 3,761 Putonghua teachers have fully or partially met the Language Proficiency Requirement through different channels, including exemption, authorised training and assessment. About 700 of the English teachers have attained level four proficiency.

The authority will issue result notices to candidates today. Those who do not receive the notices by Saturday should contact the authority on 2239 2771.