Hang Seng School stars again as traditional elite colleges come up short in A-levels

Sha Tin's Hang Seng School of Commerce made it three in a row yesterday when it trounced traditional elite schools in the A-level results by producing both of the students who got six A grades and six of the 11 who scored five.

Just one of the remaining five-A students came from one of the traditional elite schools, St Paul's Co-Educational College. The other four came from a sixth-form college in Tai Kok Tsui and three English-medium secondaries in Tai Kok Tsui and the New Territories.

It is the third consecutive year Hang Seng School of Commerce has produced the lion's share of star students in the A-levels, and it is the only school to have six-A students since 2003. The six-form school accounted for the city's only two six-A students in 2006, while there were none last year or in 2004 and 2005.

Hang Seng's total tally of 515 A grades - picked up by 249 of its final-year students this year - accounted for nearly 12 per cent of the 4,401 As dished out in the whole city.

'I expected to do better than last year, but I never imagined we would do as well as this,' school president Chui Hong-sheung said. 'We have 46 per cent more A grades this year than last year.'

Dr Chui conceded the improvement was partly due to higher admissions requirements as exam success had boosted the school's popularity, but insisted it was also down to the hard work of students and teachers.

But while there were smiles of relief for the 17,570 students who did well enough to qualify for a university place - including 717 evening school and private candidates - the competition is now on to secure one of the 14,000 still up for grabs. Top-scoring Form Six students have already snapped up 420 places under the Early Admissions Scheme.