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The Education Bureau (EDB) today (February 14) announced that the Curriculum and Assessment (C&A) Guides for New Senior Secondary (NSS) subjects, published in 2007, had been updated in early 2014. This was in response to the short-term recommendations made on curriculum and assessment subsequent to the New Academic Structure (NAS) Review conducted in the 2012/13 school year.
The C&A Guides are important references for schools in implementing the Senior Secondary curriculum and assessment. Other short-term recommendations of the NAS Review are listed in the EDB Circular Memorandum No. 48/2013.
Following the smooth completion of the first cycle of the NSS curriculum and assessment with positive impacts on schools and students, the NAS Review was jointly launched in 2012/13 by the EDB, the Curriculum Development Council and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) to address practical concerns and fine-tune the delivery of the NAS. Short-term recommendations at the subject level and the system/school level were announced in April 2013. In this light, the C&A Guides were updated for schools' reference.
The updates aimed at fine-tuning the implementation of the curriculum and assessment for the benefit of student learning, and the major changes were mainly confined to Chapter 2 (Curriculum Framework), Chapter 3 (Curriculum Planning) and Chapter 5 (Assessment). In view of the updates in the curriculum and assessment, the assessment design of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examinations for 2014, 2015 and 2016 has been listed for schools' reference.
The updated C&A Guides have been uploaded to the NAS Web Bulletin (www.edb.gov.hk/nas/en). The assessment design is subject to continuous refinement in the light of feedback from live examinations. Full details are provided in the Regulations and Assessment Frameworks for the year of the examination and other supplementary documents, which are available on the HKEAA website (www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/hkdse/assessment/assessment_framework/).
For the latest developments of the NAS review, schools, teachers, students, parents and the public are welcome to visit the designated webpage (www.edb.gov.hk/nas/review/en).
Ends/Friday, February 14, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:35
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