HK pupils will face modified syllabus as Britain phases out GCSE exams
Radical shake-up of British education system will see examination phased out by 2017, but international version is likely to continue
Thousands of Hong Kong pupils who sit General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations will face a modified syllabus in the wake of a shake-up in the British examination system.
But two international qualification providers said yesterday that the GCSE's international version, the IGCSE, would continue for the foreseeable future.
Monday's announcement by British Education Secretary Michael Gove set Britain on the path to one of the biggest shake-ups of its education system in decades, with a new exam, the English Baccalaureate, replacing the GCSE from 2017.
Gove said the move was intended to tackle "grade inflation" - a growing number of students recording high marks - and "dumbing down" of standards.
In Hong Kong, thousands of students, from the English Schools Foundation, international schools and some local schools, sit GCSE and international GCSE exams to give them the option of continuing their studies in Britain.
There will be time to adjust the curriculum to cope with the reform, ESF development adviser Chris Durbin says. But he added it would "be rather silly" for London to make dramatic changes to the IGCSE exams because this was "a kind of export income" for Britain's struggling economy.
It is also unlikely that the ESF will introduce the new baccalaureate as its schools have focused on offering an internationalised syllabus, he said.