Four Hong Kong universities refuse to recognise two maths electives
There is a continuing decline in the number of secondary students taking exams in the subjects
Half of Hong Kong’s publicly funded universities still do not recognise two advanced maths electives for admission amid a continuing drop in the number of secondary students taking the subjects.
Under the new secondary curriculum introduced in 2009, the two electives are the only further maths components besides the mandatory maths subject, which educators say provides only basic maths knowledge.
Science snub: Fewer Hong Kong school pupils opt for science subjects, endangering government bid to boost technology sector
But the curriculum considers the two electives as “half-subjects” and gives them fewer teaching hours, thus limiting universities’ ability to recognise them as full electives.
“Our new students’ maths ability has really become weaker,” says Professor Cheung Wing-sum, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Hong Kong’s faculty of science.
“This will not only affect the maths programmes, but the whole faculty of science, because maths is the foundation of all science.”
Figures on the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exam, introduced in 2012, show that extended maths in calculus and statistics (M1) and extended maths in algebra and calculus (M2) suffered the steepest declines in the percentage of students sitting exams.