The novel coronavirus epidemic is endless, and the whole society is struggling to survive, not only the citizens but also the candidates.
The three-year high school career of this year's DSE candidates starts from the campus life in September 2019 and ends with the online teaching of the fifth wave of the epidemic in 2022 - it seems that they have experienced something, and it seems that there is nothing.
The SAR government allowed teachers and students to become "experiments" of "suspending classes without stopping", but the epidemic not only affected the students' journey and education quality, but also changed the economic structure and employment structure. However, the government seemed to disagree and did not think about their future at all. How to join society.
"DSE Candidates Under the Epidemic" Series No. 3
In the end, on the day the list was released, Xixi failed to achieve the required grades, and was admitted to the Chinese department in her mind, full of disappointment and regret.
(Photo by Liang Pengwei)
chosen by the times
A repeater, Zhuoxuan (pseudonym), is calm that the epidemic has little effect on him, and regards the changes brought about by the epidemic as an opportunity to enter a university.
On July 20th, the day the DSE rankings were released, he was ashamed. Last year, the Chinese and English subjects, which only reached level 2, all got level 3 this year, and the best 5 subjects scored 21 points. If they go well, they can be admitted. University Department of Civil Engineering.
When he was interviewed, he grinned, "I can only say that I meet the schedule." Zhuo Xuan, who is retaking the Chinese and English subjects this year, is currently studying for an associate degree program.
Last year, the subject of geography was awarded a star, but the Chinese and English subjects were "lame" and failed to meet the basic requirement of college admissions scores of "33222", which made him unable to enroll in the desired degree program, so he decided to study while preparing to retake the Chinese and English subjects.
When asked about his feeling of being out of the ranking last year, Zhuo Xuan said quite indifferently, "If you fail, you will fail. There is a way to enter the university." ” has become the “new normal”. The number of face-to-face classes is less than 100 days, and the support for online classes is very insufficient at the initial stage. The Education Bureau even postponed the start date of the DSE exam to April 23, canceled the Chinese and English oral exams, and the Chinese subject reading paper. The classical Chinese reading section will not assess the two sample essays "Yueyang Tower" and "Six Kingdoms"... Various changes add uncertainty to the exam.
Fighting DSE again this year, Zhuo Xuan seems very calm.
For fresh DSE candidates, the three-year high school career has the most changes in courses, the least number of face-to-face days, and the most severe epidemic on the eve of the public exam. Coupled with the constraints of family environment and economic conditions, many people have difficulty concentrating on preparing for the exam at home; But for Zhuo Xuan, these external factors did not seem to have much impact on him. "On the contrary, the results after the epidemic (2022) are better than those before the epidemic (2021)." He explained that before the epidemic, life Crowded with different activities, the schedule is chaotic, and there is not much time for study; and the various social distancing restrictions brought about by the epidemic forced him to calm down and concentrate on reviewing.
Zhuo Xuan took out the associate degree course schedule: 24 class hours a week, lined up in a row from Monday to Saturday, but because it was taught online, he had more time to juggle reading and preparing for the dse exam.
However, in the first semester of his associate's degree when the epidemic slowed down a little, he was still distracted, skipping classes from time to time, and shopping aimlessly with friends.
His thought at the time was that as long as he passed the diploma exam well, it didn't matter what the grades of the associate students were.
This mentality continued until the beginning of the next semester. It was not until he was kindly reminded by a relative at a dinner party that he suddenly realized that he might have "two ends and one end". , then 'completely finished'." Since then, he has regained his senses and faced his studies well.
Finally, Zhuoxuan's associate degree and DSE scores improved.
In addition to crediting his growth during the epidemic, he also emphasized that it is related to the current situation, describing himself as "a person chosen by the times"-amidst the low birth rate and the continued immigration wave, the number of candidates in the past two years has dropped significantly, and the degree With less competition than it used to be, he has a better chance of getting into college.
A repeater, Zhuoxuan, was calm that the epidemic had little impact on him, but instead regarded the changes brought about by the epidemic as an opportunity to enter a university.
(provided by respondents)
Competition is not as fierce as it used to be
Fresh candidate Jia Lang (pseudonym) has the same view.
He scored 17 points in five subjects, similar to the predicted scores for college admissions this year.
He considers himself a beneficiary of the "immigration wave", and his attitude towards the epidemic is slightly different from that before the test. "If the students with excellent grades are still in Hong Kong, I may not get this score. If there is no epidemic, I should be around. It's so tempting to play."
In fact, their claims are not without merit.
Looking at the changes in the competitiveness of the DSE since the start of the test ten years in 2012 (see the table below), the number of candidates has decreased from 73,000 to 48,000 this year, but the number of subsidized places in the eight major public institutions has remained at 15,000. Therefore, the competition level of JUPAS has also been reduced from 2 people for a degree to 1.3 people for a degree, and the Xueyou Club predicts that the admission score has also been lowered to 17 points.
This is bound to be an advantage for the freshmen, and they can't help but be told that they were "born in the right era".
The competition is not as good as it used to be, and if you still don't make it to the 15,000 funded degrees, it's a pressure.
Speaking of this, Zhuo Xuan was a little nervous: "This is an admission ticket. The proportion of college admissions is very high now, and it will only get higher in the future. If I fail to get admitted to the university, the competitiveness will only be lower. In any case At least a college degree is required, it doesn't matter what you study."
Another fresh candidate, Xixi (pseudonym), finished the DSE exam, which was more of a relief.
He believes that DSE and university are both important, and they are a fork in the next stage of life. "If you pass the test, you will have more choices, and the future will be easier." But at the same time, he constantly blames himself, feeling that he is lazy and unable to Adapting to online classes, the test-taking state is not good.
Xixi, who used to yearn for admission to the Chinese Department, received the result sheet, which was a mixture of sadness and joy. She was happy that her grades were better than expected, and she was sad that her scores did not reach the entrance level.
He couldn't help thinking about a lot of "why" and "if": "Why can someone adapt to the epidemic and pass the DSE exam? Why can't he do it himself? He can only say that he is lazy. If there is no epidemic, if campus life returns to the right track, In an environment with a more learning atmosphere, you may be able to get better grades.”
(Drawing of "Hong Kong 01")
who fills the void for them
However, there are no ifs in life. The three-year high school career of fresh candidates starts from the campus life in September 2019 and ends with the online teaching of the fifth wave of the epidemic in 2022.
For the lack of campus life, the two freshmen can't help but have some regrets.
Xixi said that due to the epidemic, she was unable to participate in her favorite drama club, and she no longer had the time to rehearse drama with her classmates, and she had no chance to perform in school.
He knew that public exams meant leaving campus, but he didn't feel much about graduating.
Jia Long also lost too many campus memories due to the epidemic: the camp meeting in Form 4, the autumn trip in Form 5, the ground games in Form 5 and 6, and the final graduation camp were all forced to cancel.
The middle school career that Jia Lang imagined is inseparable from the slapstick and trivial matters between classes. "Classmates secretly took out their tablet computers and watched videos in groups of three or five." However, under the epidemic, these campus life were taught by half-day face-to-face and a computer. Replacement, "The school in high school suddenly changed from a well-organized campus with six or seven floors of stairs, a library, and an auditorium to a computer." He described that he only gradually recovered after the sixth semester of secondary school. The days of face-to-face classes are the real high school students; most of the time before, he was blank about his high school career and DSE.
The epidemic is raging, and the whole society is struggling to survive, not only the citizens but also the candidates.
However, unlike working citizens, the decision-making power of students' academic calendars rests with the government and the school from start to finish.
The government has the right to require students to suspend and suspend classes. It also has the right to provide a comprehensive education plan for the three-year DSE candidates under the epidemic, so as to stabilize this batch of high school students who have grown up under the epidemic.
But now it seems that the government has not taken the main responsibility and allowed teachers and students to become the "experiments" of online courses.
What is even more worrying is that the epidemic has not only affected the students' journey and education quality, but also changed the economic structure and employment structure. However, the government seems to disagree and has not thought about how these more than 100,000 students will join the society in the future.
DSE candidates under the epidemic.
One | Three years of high school, three years of DSE candidates under the "maze" epidemic.
2 | Learning needs atmosphere, and family circumstances determine all DSE candidates under the epidemic.
3 | Those chosen by the times, who fills the gaps for them?
