Hong Kong is currently facing the toughest challenge in fighting the Covid-19 virus since the pandemic began in early 2020. It was reported over 514,000 infections and more than 2,365 deaths amid the fifth wave according to the government’s latest statistics published yesterday. Health experts form University of Hong Kong also estimated that there were around 1.8 million people already being infected as of 07 March and might have seen a number of 4.3 million infections by 01 May.

Starting from 14 January, local schools have been switching to online teaching and are now requested to start the special vacation – early summer break no later than 17 March until mid-April. The last date for the school year of 2021-22 is postponed to 12 August. However, due to different arrangements within private and international curriculum schools, the Education Bureau (EDB) has given a green light for those schools to offer online lessons for the pupils with their campuses remaining closed before the Easter break.

In addition, the exam date of this year’s Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) exam remains on 22 April as planned at this point. Candidates are required to hold a negative test result before entering a test centre. The results are tentatively scheduled to be released on 20 July. Meanwhile, given the current Covid situation still fluid, the examination period will be compressed from four weeks to three weeks. Two contingency dates – 13 May and 02 June are also set aside should the situation not be improved in April as per the announcement of Hong Kong Examinations and Assessments Authority (HKEAA). The worst scenario would be cancellation of the HKDSE exam if the pandemic situation remained severe in mid-May. In this case, students would obtain a predicted grade based on their school internal assessment marks provided by HKEAA in August.

Source:

• Hong Kong university data model predicts peak of coronavirus fifth wave, tenfold drop in infections over 1 month, South China Morning Post
• Summer break will start no later than March 17, Radio Television Hong Kong
• International school students excluded from early 'summer break', The Standard
• Adjustment to 2022 HKDSE Examination Timetable and Step-up Precautionary Measures at Examination Centres, HKEAA

Comments by British Council

With the fifth wave escalating, high death rate but low vaccination rate within young children aged 3-11, caused a high level of anxiety within the society. This is part of the reasons why EDB decided to swap the summer school holiday with the spring school holiday and hope to resume in-person lessons in mid-April. However, this new special arrangement is mainly for publicly-funded schools. International curriculum schools are exempted and able to continue delivering online lessons before Easter holiday.

This new arrangement offers UK institutions an additional opportunity to engage with prospective students through online learning activities such as taster lectures, mini summer camp during this early summer break. It also implies numbers of HK students studying summer courses in the UK between June and July/early August will decline this year.

Another potential impact for the UK sector could be a delay in receiving applicants’ academic transcripts as schools will not finish until August, resulting a knock-on effect on the delay of visa issuance as well as late arrival for the upcoming academic year.