Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, at a media session after attending a radio programme today (March 17).

Reporter: What is the purpose of changing this policy and limiting the subsidies (paying the examination fees for candidates sitting for the 2019 Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) Examination) to those who have studied in day schools?

Secretary for Education: As I said, I think we need to provide a very stable environment for the candidates to take part in the DSE Examination. Since the announcement of the proposal, there have been rumours that, or there have been some people saying that they would participate in the examination because it is free of charge. Some of them even said that they would do a lot of funny things to disrupt the examination, which I think will not be in the best interest of the students or the candidates, including private candidates as well. So I think the proposal that we now make is to provide a very stable environment so that the candidates could perform at the best at the examination.

Reporter: On the National Anthem Law, are you going to force the international school students to study the national anthem?

Secretary for Education: As a matter of principle, I think that for local students in Hong Kong, they have to learn about our national anthem and also the background as well. So that will be the direction we are heading to, but we need to discuss in detail with international schools on how to make it happen and whether there will be obstacles that we need to overcome. But we are open in the sense that we will be discussing with international schools to see what is the best way to achieve that.

Ends/Saturday, March 17, 2018
Issued at HKT 12:08

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