ENG-2011 — Page 197

Education 157

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development from kindergarten to senior secondary levels. Its members include heads of schools, practising teachers, parents, employers, academics from tertiary. institutions, professionals from related fields or related bodies, representatives from the HKEAA and the VTC, as well as EDB officers.

The Curriculum

The school curriculum provides five essential learning experiences: moral and civic education, intellectual development, community service, physical and aesthetic development, career-related experiences for lifelong learning and the whole-person development of students. Curriculum reform progresses in tandem with schools' adaptation to the central curriculum to meet the needs of their students. There have been improvements in students' generic capabilities, values and attitudes, and students are becoming independent learners. Through experience and reflective practice, schools' professional competence is rising and the quality of learning and teaching will be further enhanced.

New Senior Secondary Curriculum and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination

The New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum was implemented in 2009 for Secondary 4 students upwards to Secondary 6. Students will sit for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination in Secondary 6. Supported by a flexible, coherent and diversified curriculum, it aims at catering for students' varied interests, needs, aptitudes and abilities. It requires students to take four core subjects and acquire other learning experiences. In addition, they can choose two to three subjects from 20 NSS elective subjects, a range of Applied Learning (ApL) courses and six other language subjects according to their interests.

ApL courses are introduced to Secondary 5 and 6 to cater for students' diverse learning needs by offering studies with stronger elements of practical learning linked to broad professional and vocational fields. In the 2011-13 cohort, 35 ApL courses are offered under six areas of studies - Creative Studies; Media and Communication; Business, Management and Law; Services; Applied Science; and Engineering and Production.

Preparatory work for the first HKDSE Examination to be held in 2012 is in full gear. The HKDSE qualification has gained extensive recognition locally and overseas, in international benchmarking studies such as the NARIC (National Recognition Information Centre) report, the Tariff System of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) in the United Kingdom. Over 110 overseas tertiary institutions, including renowned universities such as Oxford and Yale, have recognised the new qualification for admission purposes, and more are being added.

Moreover, the Ministry of Education of the Mainland has announced arrangements for a pilot scheme whereby 63 Mainland higher education institutions. will consider the admission of Hong Kong students based on their results in the HKDSE and Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination and exempt them from taking the Joint Entrance Examination for Universities in the Mainland. The Mainland Higher