English Schools Foundation proud of IB exam results
Students who have achieved a perfect score in the International Baccalaureate (IB) exams have expressed their desire to make a positive impact in their chosen fields and contribute to society.  They come from seven schools run by the English Schools Foundation, which was proud to see 17 of its students achieve a perfect score of 45, more than double the number who did so last year. One of them is Tsang Chi-him from King George V School. He expressed his desire to become a doctor to help alleviate the shortage of medical staff in Hong Kong.  "I do realise that Hong Kong currently has a shortage of doctors, and I do wish to help alleviate this problem. I would like to give back to my community as well, and help with the situation here in Hong Kong as well," he said.  Another student from the same school shared her aspirations to study bioengineering at the University of California in Los Angeles and return to Hong Kong after graduation.   "Just in the LA area, especially there is a lot of startups and a lot of advancements regarding the bioengineering industry, and there's just a lot more working opportunities there," she explained.  "But I do hope to come back to Hong Kong, because I do know that the bioengineering industry in Hong Kong is growing really rapidly right now." Marc Christopher Dingcong, a top scorer from Sha Tin College, plans to study aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.  "I want to pursue a degree outside of Hong Kong, because for me, specifically I'm doing aerospace engineering, and abroad, there are many universities with much more experience in that," he added. "Here in Hong Kong, it's still okay. Of course we have it, but just the land and the landscape doesn't really lend itself to having those facilities that they would often need for aerospace engineering like runways or stuff like that for aircraft." The International Baccalaureate Organisation has previously confirmed that some candidates appeared to have leaked exam questions on social media before other students in later time zones sat the same papers.  Rob Shorthouse, ESF's director of strategy and communications, said the incident had not affected the performance of ESF students. "If you look at the results that our students have achieved, while it was an unwelcome distraction, it hasn't had an impact. Our students have done very, very well and we're proud of every single one of them," he added.  More than 2,400 Hong Kong students sat the IB exams this year, with at least 29 of them achieving the highest possible score. The average score was 36.63, higher than the global average of 30.32.