Tuition and music: how Hong Kong's pupils got into their first choice secondary schools

South China Morning Post

08-07-2025

Attending private tuition and relaxing by playing chess and listening to music were among the strategies used by Hong Kong's Primary Six students to achieve good grades and be part of the record 74 per cent of pupils who got into their most preferred secondary schools through the central allocation system.
A primary school principal also said on Tuesday that students had benefited from less competition for entering their first choice institution, helped by the
'zero-quota' policy that bans mainland Chinese women from giving birth to babies in Hong Kong.
Primary Six pupils on Tuesday morning received the results at their schools, with figures from education authorities showing that 74 per cent of them were assigned to their first choice secondary school in the central allocation, jumping from 62 per cent last year to
a record high
At Yaumati Catholic Primary School (Hoi Wang Road), students shed tears of joy at their results. One exclaimed 'I got in' several times after learning she had got a place in her first choice school, while another who enjoyed the same result thanked his parents.
'I love Wah Yan College (Kowloon) for its sports ground and its huge campus as I am into track and field,' said Aiden Chan Yin-lok.
A Primary Six pupil at Yaumati Catholic Primary School (Hoi Wang Road) gives her loved ones the thumbs up sign. Photo: Nora Tam
He had visited the campus of the elite boys' secondary school in his district even before enrolling in primary school, and had been preparing to get into Wah Yan since he was in Primary Four, his mother said.