Hong Kong exam chiefs studying changes to next year’s DSE tests after coronavirus forces pupils to spend months learning at home

Name: What’s next for DSE students after exam results?
Uploaded: 2020-08-24T07:11:35.000Z
Duration: 3 min 18 s
Description: What’s next for DSE students after exam results?

Exam authority considering changes to when Diploma of Secondary Education tests take place

Other proposals including dropping elements of certain tests, with liberal studies coursework set for chop

Reading Time:2 minutes

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The coronavirus meant pupils in Hong Kong got their exams results via email this year, instead of being able to pick them up in person. Photo: Dickson Lee

Chan Ho-him

Published: 3:11pm, 24 Aug 2020Updated: 11:28pm, 24 Aug 2020

Next year’s university entrance exams could be postponed, and some elements cut, to make up for the disruption caused by the suspension of classes because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Two sources told the Post that exam authorities had suggested holding the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams from late April to mid-May 2021, a month later than in previous years, with results to be released in July.

A contingency plan has also been proposed by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) whereby exams would start in early June, with results released in late August.

The speaking components of the Chinese- and English-language exams may also be dropped for a second consecutive year, while compulsory questions in several subjects could be changed to elective questions in exam papers, according to the sources.

03:18

What’s next for DSE students after exam results?

Adjustments may also be made to school-based assessments, including the cancelling of a project in liberal studies, which takes up 20 per cent of the subject’s total grade.

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