Opportunity there for all in Hong Kong, whatever the result
- With city school exams bringing joy and sorrow, it is best to remember that the door to a good future does not close because of failure to get into university
The month of July has brought joy and sorrow for pupils and parents with the release of examination and admission results. Following the outcome of the International Baccalaureate (IB) and secondary school allocations, tens of thousands of youngsters on Wednesday discovered whether they had made it through the city’s notoriously competitive exams and earned a place in higher education.
As in the past, there are bound to be more losers than winners; but one exam does not make or break one’s life. As with their predecessors in recent years, students have endured a great deal of pandemic-induced hardship.
They are all achievers and deserve to be congratulated.
With only four perfect scorers this year, a new low since the launch of the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination in 2012, concerns over the quality of students are understandable. Among the four core subjects, scores in English language fell slightly.
But candidates made the greatest improvement in Chinese language, with 10.7 per cent of candidates scoring Level 5 or above, up from 9.5 per cent last year. Some 58.9 per cent pupils obtained Level 3 or above for the subject, the basic requirement to enter publicly funded universities. It seems hard to draw any conclusions.
It is said that the ongoing wave of emigration has made competition less keen. More than 40 per cent of candidates attained the minimum admission requirement.
Youngsters will be competing for some 12,000 subsidised first-year places under a unified application mechanism, or a ratio of 1.45 eligible students to one slot. There are indeed more than enough tertiary education places for the pool of candidates this year.
Hong Kong’s ethnic minority, special needs pupils look to the future after DSE exams
Health restrictions for this year’s exams may have been relatively less stringent thanks to receding Covid-19. But the candidates have braved a challenging study environment over the past few years and gained due recognition for their efforts.
As Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said, the DSE results were not the only KPI – key performance indicator – of student life. The door to a good future does not close because of failure to get into university.
As the city strives to rebuild following the pandemic, there will, hopefully, be more opportunities for everyone.
