Sino-Anglo Index

The secondary schools in Hong Kong are traditionally categorised as Chinese Schools and English Schools. However, since 2010, as EDB has implemented fine-tuned medium of instruction (MOI) arrangements for secondary schools, there has been no sharp boundary between Chinese and English schools. With the permission from EDB, each school may determine their school-based MOI policy. Each subject may be conducted in either Chinese or English (except language subjects and Chinese History). This leads to different weighting of Chinese and English MOI in the schools. On the other hand, in the HKDSE, the candidates may choose either Chinese or English to answer the papers (except language subjects and Chinese History). Therefore, the MOI used by the schools in the senior secondary curriculum directly affect the languages the candidates used to sit the HKDSE.

For easy reference to the MOI policy of each secondary school, BigExam made use the information from the Secondary School Profiles, summarizing the MOI of each Category A Senior Secondary Subject, to calculate a “Sino-Anglo Index” for each school (including government, aided, DSS and caput). This index reflects the weightings of Chinese and English as MOI of the school. It is calculated from the MOI of each senior secondary subject, weighted by the number of candidates of that subject in HKDSE. The subjects using Chinese or English as MOI by class or by group are considered as Chinese and English in halves. Chinese Language and English Language are compulsory and no language choices, and therefore purged in the calculation. The Category B “Applied Learning Subjects” and the Category C “Other Language Subjects” are not used to calculate the Sino-Anglo Index.

The value of a Sino-Anglo Index is represented by “Chi.” or “Eng.” following by a percentage. If a school uses more English as the medium of instruction than Chinese, the Sino-Anglo Index begins with “Eng.”, or in contrary “Chi.”. The following percentage indicates the weighting of the language. For example, “Chi. 80%” indicates that around 80% of the curriculum uses English as MOI, and the remaining 20% uses Chinese. “Chi. 100%” indicates that all subjects, except English Language, are in Chinese. “Eng. 100%” indicates that all subjects, except Chinese Language, are in English. “Chi. 50%” or “Eng. 50%” indicates similar weighting between Chinese and English. The table below illustrates an example of calculating Sino-Anglo Index of a school.

A Sino-Anglo Index can only represents the overall weighting of MOI of a school, but not the MOI of a particular student. The MOI of a student depends on the languages used in his/her elective subjects. More importantly, if a school has many subjects with MOI by class or by group, the value of Sino-Anglo Index would indicate similar weighting in Chinese and English. However, a student may be assigned to either the Chinese class or English class. That student may need to study either in Chinese only or in English only. To choose a school appropriate to your child, you must consider the language ability of your child, and also the ability of adapting to different language environment, in order to achieve the best learning results. The MOI used by a school has no direct relationship with the academic performance of the students in that school.

The information of medium of instruction is based on English version of the Secondary School Profiles (SSP) and for reference only. The information in the SSP is entered and vetted by the schools. The subjects provided by the schools may not be HKDSE curriculum. Please contact the schools for the details.