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Education

Curriculum Development

Curriculum Development Council

The Curriculum Development Council advises the government on all matters relating to school curriculum 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, HKEAA and VTC representatives, and EDB staff.

The Curriculum

The school curriculum provides five essential learning experiences for students: moral and civic education, intellectual development, community service, physical and aesthetic development, and career-related experiences for lifelong learning and whole-person development. Curriculum reform progresses in tandem with schools' adaptation of the central curriculum to meet the needs of their students. The aim is to nurture students' general capabilities, positive values and attitudes, and independent learning capabilities.

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

The New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum was launched in September 2009 at Secondary 4. Students will take the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination on completion of Secondary 6. The NSS curriculum is flexible, coherent and diversified and aims to cater for students' varied interests, needs, aptitudes and abilities. Students must take four core subjects and acquire other learning experiences. In addition, they can choose two to three elective subjects from 20 NSS subjects, a range of Applied Learning (ApL) courses and six other language subjects.

ApL courses are introduced at Secondary 5 and 6 and include more practical learning linked to broad professional and vocational fields. In the 2013-15 cohort, 37 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.

The new qualification has gained extensive recognition in international benchmarking studies such as the National Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) report and the Tariff System of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) in the United Kingdom. The Australian Government recognised HKDSE as comparable to the Australian Senior Secondary School Certificate in 2008. Over 160 tertiary institutions worldwide, including renowned universities such as Oxford and Yale, have recognised the new qualification for admission purposes, and more are being added.

Under the State Ministry of Education's Scheme for Admission of Hong Kong Students to Mainland Higher Education Institutions rolled out in the 2012-13 academic year, some Mainland higher education institutions will admit Hong Kong students on the basis of their results in the HKDSE Examination and exempt them from taking the Joint Entrance Examination for Universities in the Mainland. More than 6,500 Hong Kong students submitted applications under the scheme in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years, and about 2,200 Hong Kong

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