Hong Kong DSE candidates studying foreign languages will have to sit exams provided by different overseas bodies from 2025
- All foreign-language courses under DSE from 2025 will use papers provided by relevant bodies such as Alliance Francaise after previous supplier withdraws
- Urdu and Hindi will be suspended from that year, with only the former returning in 2026
Students sitting foreign-language tests for Hong Kong’s university entrance exams will have to complete papers provided by official organisations of the relevant countries under a new arrangement beginning in 2025.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority on Tuesday said tests for Urdu would resume in 2026 after being suspended the year before. The authority last year said both Hindi and Urdu would be dropped from the 2025 examinations.
The authority said the changes were needed as the city’s previous provider of papers and results for the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) would stop providing them. All foreign languages under the DSE in 2025 will be affected, which includes French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Hindi and Urdu.
Cambridge Assessment International Education had said it planned to stop the service after an internal review.
The suspension of the Urdu paper in 2025 would affect about dozens candidates who were currently in Form Five. Only about 10 students take the Hindi tests every year. No suitable exam had been identified so far to resume the subject beyond the suspension date, according to the authority in 2022.
But a new assessment for Korean would be added from 2025.
Candidates for the language tests will be required to sit official papers from stipulated bodies, which are the Alliance Francaise de Hong Kong for French, Goethe-Institut Hong Kong for German, Japan Foundation for Japanese, National Institute for International Education in South Korea for Korean, and Instituto Cervantes in Shanghai for Spanish.
