Hong Kong is completing its academic structure reform with the launch of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination in March and a four-year university degree to commence in September.
Yet the impact of reform measures launched a decade ago is still being felt. Schools are continuing with efforts to instil more motivation and inspiration into students' lives, exposing them to a variety of topics and teaching styles.
But both students and teachers are experiencing heavy workloads as they grapple with more diversified learning styles and new content. Driving all this is the goal to nurture much-needed reflective, well-rounded and independent learners in today's world.
Indeed, the same goal is shared by local and international schools - although the level of resources with which each school is armed varies greatly. There are also differences in learning and teaching approaches.
As featured in this guide, more international and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools have adopted the International Baccalaureate programmes, challenging their students to understand more about local as well as global issues, and acquire broader, deeper knowledge. A key characteristic of the programmes is their inquiry-based approach to learning, which encourages students to ask meaningful questions, investigate and research, and discuss and debate with others.
School learning covers all sorts of skills, not just subject knowledge. Language skills have remained a key concern for parents and schools, a rising number of which are devoted to bilingualism training, particularly in Chinese and English. Demand for such training is likely to grow in the years to come.