Urdu taking DSE gap year instead of dropping out
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) on Tuesday said Urdu will not be disappearing from university entrance exams after all, with a new arrangement in place from 2026. Last year, officials announced that Urdu and Hindi would be dropped from the 2025 exams onwards because they would no longer have access to question papers for the two languages. From 2026, however, Urdu exams based on Pakistan's national curriculum will be administered by Islamabad's Federal Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (FBISE). Secondary school vice principal Dr. Rizwah Ullah told RTHK that the inclusion of Urdu in the DSEs will boost the chances of some ethnic minority students in getting a place at a local university. "I think it is catered for the diverse needs of different students in Hong Kong. There was some technical difficulties as to why Urdu and Hindi were removed for the candidates in 2025 because there were no service providers for the assessment, and that's why these two subjects were taken out and Korean was added in 2025," he said. "If students can score a good performance from A to the passing grade, the marks will be added and they will stand in a more competitive position to compete for some better university courses."  From 2025 as well as Korean, students can also have exams in French, German, Japanese and Spanish counted in their DSE results.