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The following is issued on behalf of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research:
The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) will launch a new Putonghua-related TV programme later this year on top of its popular activities including drama, debate and award schemes.
This is one of the key initiatives of SCOLAR this year to step up the promotion of Putonghua.
The time frame for the activities will also be expanded to cover the whole year for more students and the public to use and get acquainted with Putonghua.
At the launching ceremony of RTHK Putonghua activities today (March 25), SCOLAR member Ms Virginia Ng said SCOLAR spared no effort in promoting biliteracy and trilingualism in Hong Kong, striving to enhance our people's language standard and create a good language learning environment.
"SCOLAR will continue to co-organise the promotion of Putonghua activities with different organisations this year," she said.
Since 2002, SCOLAR has been organising large-scale activities to promote Putonghua, attracting more than 220 000 participants. In view of the enthusiastic response from students and the community, SCOLAR decided to expand the scale by spreading the activities throughout the year to encourage more learning and using of Putonghua.
The activities to be held this year include the Putonghua performances and training by professional troupe for some 280 schools and the Inter-school Putonghua Debate Competition coorganised with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, both of which have been launched in February.
RTHK will also continue its support of SCOLAR by organising the well-received "The Best Student Awards for Progress in Putonghua", "The Most Active School Awards for Promoting Putonghua", "Putonghua Broadcaster Training Programme" and "Putonghua Debate Camp for Young People".
More details about the activities are available at SCOLAR website at http://www.language-education.com.
Established in 1996, SCOLAR advises the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on language education issues and on the use of the Language Fund.
Ends/Saturday, March 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:00
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