Subjects under the Eight Key Learning Areas

(2023/24 School Year)

¹ The revised Computational Thinking ─ Coding Education: Supplement to the Primary Curriculum published in 2020, recommends schools to allocate about 10-14 hours at each upper primary level to teach coding education to cultivate students’ computational thinking. The “Enriched Module on Coding Education for Upper Primary Level” has been developed for schools to adopt starting from the 2023/24 school year (EDBCM No. 109/2023).

² The General Studies (GS) curriculum for Primary Schools provides diversified learning experiences for students to lay foundations for the Key Learning Areas of Science Education, Technology Education and Personal, Social and Humanities Education and to progressively develop their positive values, attitudes and generic skills. GS consists of six learning strands, namely “Health and Living”, “People and Environment”, “Science and Technology in Everyday Life”, “Community and Citizenship”, “National Identity and Chinese Culture”, and “Global Understanding and the Information Era”. Extended learning activities are organised on the basis of the six learning strands.

³ Technology Education Key Learning Area Curriculum was fully implemented at the junior secondary level in the 2016/17 school year. It covers six knowledge contexts, namely “Information and Communication Technology”, “Materials and Structures”, “Operations and Manufacturing”, “Strategies and Management”, “Systems and Control”, and “Technology and Living”. Modular approach is proposed in the implementation of the curriculum. In relation to the ICT knowledge context, the “Module on Artificial Intelligence for Junior Secondary Level” has been developed for schools to adopt starting from the 2023/24 school year, and schools should allocate 10 to 14 hours of AI learning at the junior secondary level (EDBCM No. 109/2023).

⁴ Schools should offer Chinese History as an independent compulsory subject at the junior secondary (JS) level from the 2018/19 school year. All secondary schools should allocate 25% of the total lesson time for the PSHE KLA curriculum, or about 5% of the total lesson time for the JS level, or about two lessons per week, to the study of Chinese History under the PSHE KLA at the JS level.

⁵ Citizenship, Economics and Society in leiu of Life and Society will be fully implemented at S1 in all secondary schools in Hong Kong starting from the 2024/25 school year.

⁶ The Senior Secondary (SS) Curriculum implemented in September 2009 is made up of 3 components, namely, Core Subjects, Elective Subjects (including SS subjects, Applied Learning courses and Other Languages) and Other Learning Experiences (i.e. Values Education, Community Service, Aesthetic Development, Physical Development and Career-related Experiences).

• Applied Learning (ApL): covers six Areas of Studies, namely Creative Studies; Media and Communication; Business, Management and Law; Services; Applied Science; and Engineering and Production. In addition, Applied Learning Chinese (for non-Chinese speaking students) (ApL(C)) is provided exclusively for non-Chinese speaking students. Currently, there are around 60 ApL courses for students to choose from. Students may take a maximum of 2 ApL courses (excluding ApL(C)) as elective subjects in accordance with their interests and aspirations.
• Other Languages (OL): Starting from 2025, the Cambridge Assessment International Education Advanced Subsidiary level question papers will no longer be used for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination Category C OL subjects. Under the new arrangements, schools can offer the following OL subjects as SS elective(s) to respective level of students in the 2023/24 school year:
  
  
  Level of students

  No. of OL subject choices

  OL subjects

  S4

  6

  French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Urdu

  S5

  5

  French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish

  S6

  6

  French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Spanish and Urdu