Sky Is The Limit For Ethnic Minority DSE Students

Some ethnic minority students who received their university entrance exam results on Wednesday said they are looking beyond their success in education and hoping to give back to the community in future.

Mehmood Ayesha was one of more than 40,000 secondary school students who took this year's Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams.

The Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College student has already been offered a spot studying English at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) through the new School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme.

Under the programme, schools can nominate outstanding secondary six students for direct university entrance, with successful pupils receiving an offer regardless of their DSE exam results.

Ayesha told RTHK that she hoped to make good use of her background in Urdu to give back to her community.

"I really want to help ethnic minorities, I really want to contribute to my society, to my school. They all understand Urdu for sure, but I also want to communicate with them through English," she said.

"My school will definitely welcome me if I want to teach here or help ethnic minorities."

Her classmate, Safwana Qasim, has also been offered to study in the same HKU programme, and plans to become a teacher in the future.

Safwana believed being top of her class helped her to secure an early acceptance, and attributed her success to her older sister.

"I remember she did really great in her DSE. From that time, I was inspired that I'm going to study, I'll continue studying," she said.

But for their classmate, Hassaan Ashraf, he would have to wait and see where he would be going for higher education.

He said he's satisfied with the outcome, which would hopefully get him into the mechanical engineering programme at HKU, despite challenges in preparing for the exams amid the Covid pandemic.

"Most of our classes were shifted to online classes, so it was really hard to focus...For me, I have asked my teachers to prepare some extra classes," he said.

Razi Raza Nasir, who taught the students Liberal Studies for the past three years, said he's happy for the youngsters.

"They have the ingredients, they have the qualities of success. They have that grit, determination, courage, perseverance, especially in the midst of Covid," he said.