Hongkongers’ university dreams dashed by HKDSE Chinese exam
Dubbed the “paper of death”, poor Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education results are proving a major hindrance to admission
Daniel Lee Cheuk-hin aced the maths and science exams for his Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) last year. He also scored grade 4 for English. That’s pretty good going, but his Chinese result came as an enormous blow: he only achieved grade 2. The failed grade dashed his dreams of entering university, rendering his stellar results in other subjects meaningless.
“Unfortunately, you need a [minimum of] grade 3 in Chinese to enter university. I was shocked and couldn’t accept it,” Lee says. “In my class that year, I was the only one with one subject that didn’t meet the minimum entrance requirement. All my friends got into university.”
The 19-year-old enrolled for an associate degree course in science and studied Chinese daily for a second attempt at HKDSE this year.
Lee paid extra attention to improving his reading skills, his lowest score. “I did drilling every day, doing papers and exercises. I returned to my school once a month to meet my Chinese-language teacher, who read and corrected my writing, helping me improve my composition skills,” Lee says.
“Throughout that year, I didn’t want to see anyone, especially my high school friends. I felt embarrassed and didn’t know what to say to them.”
However, Lee’s hard work paid off; he scored a grade 3 in Chinese and eventually secured a place in the chemistry programme at Chinese University.
Many Hong Kong students have experienced similar anguish over their Chinese exam since the government introduced the HKDSE in 2012. Although Chinese is the main language used in Hong Kong, half of all candidates fail the subject annually.
