Feedback from AHSS on the Initial Thoughts by the Task Force on Review of School Curriculum
Overall the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools acknowledges the efforts made by the Task Force on Review of School Curriculum to address some important and pending issues of the secondary school curriculum and we would like to raise the following concerns:
- The gender difference as seen in the HKDSE results of three of the core subjects (Chinese, English, Liberal Studies) with female candidates performing significantly better than male candidates at Level three or above. This results in gender disparity in attaining 3322 over the years.
| Core subjects
at 3322 or better |
2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Male | 8,719/29,337
29.7% |
8,887/31,123
28.6% |
10,032/34,400
29.2% |
| Female | 12,884/28,312
45.5% |
12,706/29,226
43.5% |
14,525/32,474
44.7% |
Factors that lead to such a phenomenon need to be investigated as this difference might point to an inequality issue that would have grave social implication.
- The professional opinion by the majority of secondary school principals is that existing General Entrance Requirements of UGC-funded universities should be fine-tuned to allow greater flexibility so as to better reflect the projected manpower needs and full exploitation of Hong Kong’s talents. We should take note that the ratio of candidates getting into local university is much lower than other Asian counterparts.
- Multiple exit points at HKDSE should be considered for students who would like to leave secondary school earlier to pursue other pathways to cater for learner diversity.
- We support the initiative to trim the curricula of the core subjects and await the implementation details. We hope that the breadth and depth of the overall curriculum, including the elective subjects, would also be addressed for learners’ abilities.
- We welcome the move to work closely with universities and hope the revised School Principal’s Nomination scheme can further cater for learner diversity.
We appreciate and understand that the Task Group has undertaken a challenging scope of work. We share the same vision to create a better future for Hong Kong students through a holistic review and look forward to reading the full draft. We hope to respond in greater details in the next round of consultation.