Gift for DSE girls

Some 15,000 female students taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination next year will not need to pay as a foundation is donating HK$60 million to provide each a HK$3,300 cash allowance.

Horizons Venture cofounder Solina Chau Hoi-shuen said the foundation aims to provide unconditional and direct financial support to female students taking the exams.

The HK$3,300 is a "gift" to female students attending government secondary and subsidized secondary schools who take six subjects in the exams.

"This subsidy can support over 15,000 female students and pave the way for them to university education," the foundation said.

The program was hatched after the government announced in the budget in February that it would stop paying exam fees for DSE candidates starting next year.

Program details will be announced to over 350 schools through the Hong Kong Subsidized Secondary Schools Council and the Association of Principals of Government Secondary Schools.

The allowance will be disbursed before the third quarter this year.

Meanwhile, the exam authority said 80 percent of some 43,000 candidates successfully checked in via the "Check-in Smart" app at the DSE math exam yesterday, with no student failing to log in.

"We encourage all candidates to continue to use the Check-in Smart app," the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority said. "The exam authority will make every effort to monitor the app's operation to ensure that candidates can sign in smoothly."

The authority launched two new apps this year: "Check-in Smart" for students to self check-in and "i-Invigilators" for invigilators to verify the identity of candidates.

The "i-Invigilators" app broke down on Thursday and Friday, causing the HKEAA to announce on Saturday to stop the use of the app and resume manual identification.

Hong Kong Subsidized Secondary Schools Council chairman Lee Yi-ying said "Check-in Smart" enables candidates to read more exam-related information.

"The platform [i-Invigilators] has been established - it would take some time for the platform to gradually modify," she said.

Technology and innovation sector lawmaker Duncan Chiu Tat-kun expressed concern over the apps inaccurately reflecting their actual usage for tens of thousands of exam takers, despite HKEAA conducting capacity tests.

"Technical issues may not be detected in just one or two tests. It will require a larger scale or longer testing time when it comes to a simulation and this involves the issue of cost," Chiu said.

He suggested that the government's Digital Policy Office set up a team for different departments or advisory bodies to conduct third-party tests.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com