Students To Get DSE Results Through Text Message

Secondary school students taking public examinations from next month will receive their results in an SMS text message – one of a number of special arrangements education authorities are taking to mitigate the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Exams and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) said on Thursday that this trial scheme will allow Diploma of Secondary Education examination candidates to make necessary and timely adjustments to their choice of university.

The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination is to be held between April 23 and May 20.

“We thought about the worst case scenario [amid the pandemic] where candidates or even school administrators cannot leave their homes,” said Ricardo Mak, the authority’s public examinations director. “So, SMS is a very effective way to disseminate the results to students.”

He said for now, the authority plans to announce the results on July 21, and candidates will get a test SMS message a month before that.

The HKEAA said candidates will still eventually need to pick up their official result slips in person.

It said it will also be splitting students into zones at exam halls and classrooms, and will make students leave in groups.

That’s to avoid a repeat of a situation last month, when more than a hundred students were sent to quarantine after taking a mock public exam at Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School because two of their number came down with Covid-19.

Mak also said if candidates are subject to compulsory Covid testing, they will not be allowed to enter the examination venue unless they bring a negative test result.

Those who are late or unable to make it to an exam venue, because they do not have a negative test result or because they are caught in a mandatory lockdown, will have their scores assessed by the HKEAA.

The maximum score they could get in this case would be a ‘5’ – the third-highest achievable level.

And the HKEAA said the majority of the 52,000 candidates will be going back to their schools to sit for exams of four core subjects. This, it said, will ease the pressure on students, as they will be familiar with the venue.