334 Scheme

The 3-3-4 Scheme is the new academic structure for senior secondary education and higher education in Hong Kong. This scheme begins starting from the 2009 school year. By 2012, HKDSE will replace HKCEE (O'Level) and HKALE (A'Level).

Curriculum

Its core subjects are Chinese language, English language, mathematics and Liberal studies, with three elective subjects. It is different from the old curriculum because students under this new academic structure only receive three years of senior secondary education and four years of university education. In order to move on to university education, students must get a pass on those four core subjects in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE).

As a result, there is no more needs for a genuine sixth form college. The first and now only such college in Hong Kong, PLK Vicwood KT Chong Sixth Form College, is thus changed to mostly a senior secondary college.

Advantages

The incorporation of a new subject "Liberal Studies" into the core subjects of the certificate (making it a total number of 4 core subjects alongside Chinese, English and Mathematics), targeted to raise student's awareness to world issues and political matters, develop critical & logical reasoning, and experience research processes of data gathering, sifting and analyzing through an independent research project, known as IES (Independent Enquiry Studies).

Disadvantages

The change in format of external examination adds burden on teachers and students in the transition cohorts, as they may be accustomed to the old examinations.
Liberal studies is a new subject, which requires additional training for teachers.
Since the two public exams are combined into one, there is no longer a first exam to act as a filter. Due to the wide range in the competency levels exhibited by the student population, designing the new exam papers becomes more difficult and time-consuming.
The exams, first started in 2012, were considerably easier compared to international accepted exams such as the IB Diploma. This means that often many will achieve high marks, due to the exams being very easy. Questions such as "Name 5 cities mentioned in the magazine article" appeared in the English exam. The History exam is often criticized as an easy course as 50% of the grade is based on data analysis. Some believe that this is very unfair as data analysis requires little historical knowledge. Others rebut that the data-based questions also require candidates to make use of their background knowledge to make sense of the data provided and candidates have to express views over controversial statements, like what they have to do when answering the essay-type questions.

References

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