Fifty local elementary schools will be approved to open pilot bilingual courses every year, bringing the city's bilingual schools to 500 by 2010, education officials said yesterday.

The plan came as the national conference on bilingual education was held at East China Normal University yesterday. More than 200 primary and secondary school teachers from across country attended.

"It is time to transfer from merely creating a bilingual teaching atmosphere to substantially raising the quality and quantity of education," said Zhu Pu, deputy director at the Shanghai Bilingual Education Research Group.

Bilingual education refers to using the English language to teach subjects in elementary schools. Physics, biology and art and will be key pilot subjects.

About 260 primary and secondary schools, including several kindergartens, already have pilot courses in English. Bilingual teaching was introduced in 2000, officials said.

The Shanghai Education Commission will also complete an assessment on 100 bilingual schools by 2007, giving them either an A, B, C or D grade according to their teaching quality.

The first batch of 30 schools have already passed the assessment -- grades will be publicized by year's end for parental reference, the commission said.

The commission has listed bilingual teaching programs as one of its top priorities this year.

The proposal, however, was opposed by some teachers.

"We do want to create an English-speaking environment for students," said Zhou Zhigang, vice headmaster at Jing'an Foreign Language School. "But we don't have teachers strong in English and their own subjects."

Others are concerned early foreign language education will hinder the ability of students to learn their mother tongue -- Taiwan Province has already banned bilingual teaching in kindergartens.

Due to limited faculty resources, schools should focus on one or two subjects rather than rashly introduce English into all subjects, Zhu of Shanghai Bilingual Education Research said.

(Shanghai Daily April 28, 2004)