Coronavirus: Hong Kong students stranded in Pakistan set to miss exams, leaving dreams on hold for another year
- Student Ahmad Shahzad is stuck in a village after Prime Minister Imran Khan put the country under total lockdown to stem surging coronavirus infections
- Lawmaker Vincent Cheng says he has been contacted by at least five students stranded in Pakistan
As tens of thousands of students in Hong Kong prepare to sit university entrance examinations starting on Friday, sixth-former Ahmad Shahzad can only dream about what might have been.
Shahzad is stranded in a village in Pakistan, meaning his hopes for a career in aviation are likely to be put on hold for another year as he is unable to sit the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams.
He and his family flew to their ancestral home to wait out the pandemic in early March after school classes were suspended in Hong Kong to help in the fight against the coronavirus. But not long after they left, the coronavirus caught up with them, finding its way to the South Asian nation.
Now Shahzad is stuck in a village on the outskirts of Nowshera, a city three hours’ drive northwest of the capital Islamabad, after Prime Minister Imran Khan put the country under total lockdown to stem surging coronavirus infections.
Shahzad, who moved to Hong Kong 10 years ago, recalled: “I couldn’t speak English when I first arrived so I already wasted a year in Primary Two. I am interested in aircraft maintenance and joined extracurricular programmes about flight attendants.”
He said he did not want to waste another year.
The coronavirus crisis had already forced a one-month postponement of the exams, which more than 52,000 candidates were originally scheduled to sit from March 27, as well as the indefinite closure of schools since early February.