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The Government announced today (March 19) that a test of Basic Law knowledge would be included in the recruitment for all civil service jobs to be advertised from September 1, 2008, onwards. The purpose is to heighten public awareness of the Basic Law and to promote a culture of learning about the Basic Law in the community.
Test results will not affect a candidate's eligibility for applying for a civil service job. It will be one of the considerations to assess the suitability of a candidate. As a general principle, the main considerations for suitability for appointment remains a candidate's qualifications, experience and calibre.
For civil service jobs requiring degree or professional qualifications and advertised from September 1 onwards, candidates will need to have taken a Basic Law test.
A spokesman for the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) said that the CSB would conduct two Basic Law written tests for prospective applicants, one to be held on May 24, 2008, together with the Common Recruitment Examination, and the other to be held on July 26, 2008, on a stand-alone basis. Holders of degree or professional qualifications and university students in their final year of studies in the 2007-08 academic year may apply to sit for these tests.
Applications for the two tests may be submitted from March 22 to April 4, 2008 (5pm Hong Kong time) on-line through the CSB homepage, or by filling in the CRE/BLT application form (CSB 31 (3/2008)) available for downloading from the CSB homepage or from a Public Enquiry Service Centre of any District Office or any Job Centre of the Labour Department.
After these two tests, the CSB would conduct Basic Law tests at around six-monthly intervals for prospective applicants for civil service jobs requiring degree or professional qualifications, the spokesman said.
For non-degree or non-professional civil service jobs requiring academic qualification at Form 5 level or above and advertised from September 1 onwards, the recruiting bureau or department concerned will incorporate assessment of Basic Law knowledge in a written test where there is one for the recruitment exercise. Where there is no written test, the recruiting entity will conduct a specific written assessment on a candidate's knowledge of the Basic Law immediately before or after the recruitment interview.
Written tests on the Basic Law will be set according to the different academic qualifications stipulated for different types of civil service jobs. They will be in the format of multiple-choice questions on the text of the Basic Law, including all its annexes, attachments and appendices.
Participants of written tests will be informed of their results, which are of permanent validity. Holders of test results will be exempted from sitting the relevant Basic Law written test again when applying for other degree/professional civil service jobs and/or other non-degree/non-professional civil service jobs requiring academic qualification at Form 5 level or above.
For civil service jobs requiring academic qualification below Form 5 level and advertised from September 1 onwards, candidates will not need to go through a written Basic Law test. Instead they will be tested orally on simple aspects of the Basic Law during recruitment interviews. The results will be taken into account only if two candidates are considered equal in all aspects.
Information on the assessment of Basic Law knowledge in civil service recruitment is available on the CSB homepage (www.csb.gov.hk). Detailed information on the two written tests to be administered by the CSB in May and July as well as sample questions and answers and Frequently Asked Questions will be available on the CSB homepage from March 22.
Reference materials on the Basic Law are available in the Government Basic Law homepage (www.info.gov.hk/basic_law).
Ends/Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:10
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