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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (May 18):
Question:
It has been learnt that there will be an estimated number of about 77 100 students taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education ("HKDSE") examinations in 2012; and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority ("HKEAA") has recently proposed the examination fee schedule for HKDSE as follows: language subjects will be charged at $540 per subject entry and non-language subjects at $360 per subject entry, and as such, if a student takes two language subjects and four non-language subjects, the total examination fee is $2,520. While the examination fee level is comparable to that of the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination ("HKALE") (e.g. the examination fee for taking two Advanced Supplementary level language subjects and three Advanced level non-language subjects is $2,508), it may be more than 1.6 times higher than that of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination ("HKCEE") (e.g. the examination fee for taking two language subjects and five non-language subjects is $966, calculated at the fee level of 2011). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the respective estimated costs to HKEAA for organising examinations of HKDSE language and non-language subjects in 2012, broken down by all subheads under staff cost, expenses of other personnel, as well as administrative and other operating fees;
(b) the respective estimated costs for examinations of HKDSE language and non-language subjects calculated on a per candidate and per subject basis; among such costs, the respective amounts of staff cost, expenses of other personnel, as well as administrative and other operating fees, and the respective percentages of such amounts in the relevant examination fee (i.e. $540 or $360) of each subject;
(c) all non-recurrent expenditure items with regard to examinations of HKDSE that HKEAA had requested government funding, the amount allocated and the year of funding application for each item, as well as the total amount of allocation;
(d) the respective estimated costs to HKEAA for organising examinations of HKCEE and HKALE language and non-language subjects in 2011, broken down by all subheads under staff cost, expenses of other personnel, as well as administrative and other operating fees; and
(e) the respective estimated costs for HKCEE and HKALE language and non-language subjects in 2011 calculated on a per candidate and per subject basis; among such costs, the respective amounts of staff cost, expenses of other personnel, and administrative and other operating fees, and the respective percentages of such amounts in the relevant examination fee of each subject?
Reply£º
President,
The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) is a new qualification introduced under the New Academic Structure. Instead of just simply stating the "fail"/"pass" grades of students, it suits the needs of the 21st century by recognising comprehensively the achievements and the abilities in different aspects of all students. It is therefore inevitable that the HKDSE offers more subject choices, for example, Applied Learning and other foreign languages. In 2012 HKDSE, apart from the four core subjects, there are also elective subjects including 20 New Senior Secondary (NSS) subjects, 30 Applied Learning Courses and six foreign languages subjects.
There are innovative and sophisticated assessment designs, and more rigorous processes to enhance the quality and credibility of this examination, for example, Standard-Referenced Reporting (SRR), expansion of onscreen marking, double marking and enhancement of school based assessment. It should be noted that under the old academic system, students have to sit for the HKCEE after completion of Secondary Five, and then the HKALE after completion of Secondary Seven for admission to universities. With the implementation of the HKDSE in 2012, a new senior secondary student is required to sit for one public examination only, i.e. HKDSE for admission to a variety of local and overseas study pathways and for work in order to fulfil their different study and career aspirations after completion of senior secondary education. My reply to the questions raised by Hon Cheung Man-kwong is as follows:
(a) and (b) The examination fee levels for the HKDSE are basically derived from the overall cost of conducting the examination by HKEAA. This is in line with the principle of overall cost recovery instead of cost recovery on an individual candidate basis and is applicable to all other public examinations. Due to the longer examination duration, the greater number of papers including speaking, listening, integrated skills, reading and writing, and the implementation of double marking to suitable papers, the examination fee for language subjects is higher. The cost breakdown of the language subjects and non-language subjects of 2012 HKDSE is set out in Annex 1; while the cost per subject entry and the percentage of examination fee to cost per subject entry are set out in Annex 2.
Costs of examination are affected by several main factors, including number of papers, paper complexity, number of examiners and markers required, etc. HKEAA will review its cost saving measures continuously to ensure a reasonable cost in conducting the public examination without jeopardising the standards and quality. In conducting the manpower planning and staff development, HKEAA has suitably engaged contract staff to handle the transitional and one-off project needs in order to facilitate the planning and handling of variations in manpower requirements over the coming few years.
(c) HKEAA is a statutory body which operates on a self-financing basis. It finances its recurrent operation with its own income and assets. It does not receive any recurrent subvention from the Government. Yet, given that the HKEAA is the only statutory assessment authority in Hong Kong and a strategic partner of the Government in providing quality education and supporting the new senior secondary academic structure, the Government has provided non-recurrent funding to HKEAA for justifiable public examination initiatives. The non-recurrent government grants provided to the HKEAA in the past and are directly related to HKDSE are set out in Annex 3.
(d) and (e) The examination fee structure of the HKCEE and HKALE also categorises the subjects into language and non-language. Due to the longer examination duration, the greater number of papers including speaking, listening, integrated skills, reading and writing, and the implementation of double marking to suitable papers, the cost for language subjects is also higher than non-language subjects. The cost breakdown of the language subjects and non-language subjects of 2011 HKCEE and 2011 HKALE is set out in Annex 4; while the cost per subject entry and the percentage of examination fee to cost per subject entry are set out in Annex 5.
Ends/Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Issued at HKT 12:37
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