Boosting DSE students' morale
24 March 2019
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With the start of this year’s Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination, every candidate sitting the examination is sparing no effort to get themselves in the best shape for it. To boost their morale, I made a video last week for sharing on the social media platform.
In the video, I used the five letters in the abbreviation “HKDSE” to encourage the candidates, with “H” standing for Hard work, “K” for Knowledge, “D” for Determination, “S” for Self-confidence and “E” for Endurance.
Sitting a public examination is just one of the stops in the long journey of life. If candidates are able to recognise their strengths and unleash them with a positive attitude, they will enjoy a colourful life with lots of opportunities before them no matter whether they pursue further studies or enter the workforce after secondary school.
In tandem with the continuous drop in the school age population, the number of students sitting the HKDSE Examination has decreased continuously in recent years. The academic years 2012/13 to 2017/18 saw a significant drop of 28% in the number of HKDSE candidates, from 82 283 to around 59 000. The number of candidates entering for the examination is around 56 300 this year.
While the number of first-year-first-degree places funded by the University Grants Committee has been maintained at 15 000 a year, the number of senior year undergraduate intake places for graduates of sub-degree programmes has increased from 4 000 in the 2014/15 academic year to 5 000 from the 2018/19 academic year onwards, enhancing the opportunity for sub-degree graduates to pursue further studies. This has enabled meritorious sub-degree graduates to articulate to subsidised degree programmes.
In other words, the continuous increase in the number of higher education places over the years, coupled with the continuous decrease in the number of candidates, has rendered it possible for all eligible HKDSE graduates to pursue further studies in Hong Kong. All along, the Government has strived to promote the quality and sustainable development of the post-secondary sector so as to provide flexible and diversified pathways with multiple entry and exit points for secondary school graduates. The percentage of secondary school graduates attending undergraduate programmes has increased from around 25% ten years ago to about 50% at present. If the students attending sub-degree programmes are included, the percentage of secondary school graduates proceeding to higher education has increased from around 60% ten years ago to nearly 80% at present.
Starting from the 2018/19 academic year, the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors (SSSDP) has been regularised with an increase in the number of subsidised undergraduate places to about 3 000 per cohort. In the 2019/20 academic year, a total of 38 undergraduate programmes involving 3 236 places provided by six institutions will be included in the SSSDP. These programmes fall under ten disciplines that have been identified as having keen manpower demand, including architecture and engineering, computer science, creative industries, financial technology and health care. The SSSDP not only provides secondary school graduates with broader and more diversified articulation pathways, but also nurtures talent for industries with keen demand for manpower.
Under the SSSDP, students pay a tuition fee that is reduced by deducting the subsidy from the gross tuition fee. Students in need may still apply for financial assistance from the Student Finance Office in respect of the actual amount of tuition fee payable.
Vocational and professional education and training also form an important part of the education system. I encourage young people to pursue further studies and join different industries according to their abilities and interests. The Career Information Website launched by the Education Bureau late last year serves as a new platform to provide detailed information on over 200 types of work in 21 industries, such as entry requirements, promotion and reference salary, and related training and courses. Such information will help students prepare themselves for further studies and employment.
Talent is an important element in Hong Kong’s continued development and education is the key to nurturing talent. The current-term Government considers education an investment. The estimated recurrent expenditure on education for 2018-19 is $84.6 billion — nearly 21% of the total recurrent expenditure and the largest share among all items.
Looking back, the current-term Government has allocated a considerable amount of new resources to education since its establishment. A lot of work has also been done. Shortly after assumption of office, the Chief Executive announced an annual increase of $5 billion in the recurrent expenditure on education and the first-phase measures amounted to $3.6 billion a year. An additional recurrent expenditure of around $4.7 billion was announced in the 2018 Policy Address. The cumulative increase in recurrent expenditure is over $8.3 billion, demonstrating the current-term Government’s commitment to investment in education.
Meanwhile, a number of education initiatives were announced in the 2019-20 Budget to benefit secondary students. For instance, it is expected that around 360 000 students will benefit from the proposal of providing each student in need with a one-off grant of $2,500, involving an expenditure of about $893 million. Besides, the Government will, once again, pay the examination fees for school candidates sitting the 2020 HKDSE Examination as a one-off concessionary measure.
To support manpower training for innovative technology in Hong Kong, it is proposed in the Budget that $500 million would be set aside to provide funding support for a total of 500 publicly-funded secondary schools to set up Information Technology (“IT”) Innovation Labs. Each school may apply for up to a total of $1 million in the coming three academic years. The funds may be used for procuring IT equipment and professional services as well as organising IT-related extra-curricular activities.
Besides, the Government would provide additional funding of about $1.298 billion to improve the services for infants, children and the youth. Specifically, the Government will implement the measure of “two school social workers for each school” in more than 460 secondary schools in Hong Kong starting from the new academic year, and increase supervisory manpower accordingly.
The expenditure on education is the Government’s most meaningful and valuable investment for the future. The related measures cover the whole education system, including kindergarten, primary, secondary and special education as well as post-secondary education, aiming at nurturing a diversified talent pool for the continuous development of Hong Kong.
