[Ming Pao News] The Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) examination starts tomorrow. The new epidemic affects the third consecutive DSE, some examination centres schools in response to the HKEAA's request, this year, in the rainy weather playground to set up a number of additional checkpoints, so that candidates enter the examination centre before the invigilators to remove the masks to verify the identity of the candidates, there is a transparent barrier separating the two, the candidates need to sterilise their hands after completing the examination. In response to the widening of the distance between candidates' seats to 1.8 metres, the school said that there was not enough space in the main auditorium, so it opened a small auditorium on the ground floor to divert dozens of candidates from the examination.

Chai Wan CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School is the examination centre for the four core subjects. Candidates are required to follow a number of precautionary measures (see photo), including disinfecting their hands, checking their body temperatures and submitting health declaration forms when they enter the examination centre. Candidates were then streamed to the two waiting areas in the rainy day playground according to their examination centre seat numbers.

This year, HKEAA has added a new requirement that the identity checking of candidates should be done outside the examination centres. Two and four checkpoints were set up in the waiting areas respectively. Candidates queued up at a social distance in a ventilated environment and removed their masks one by one to allow invigilators behind transparent barriers to check their identities. The invigilators will also wear goggles, face masks or gloves, etc. They will stamp their passes upon completion of the checking, and candidates will have to re-sterilise their hands before leaving.

In view of the high infection rate of the mutant virus Omicron and the HKEAA's requirement that the seating distance for each candidate should be 1.8 metres "from the front, back and left to right", W.S. Lau Secondary School opened a small ground floor auditorium on top of the main auditorium on the ground floor, which could accommodate about 80 and 40 candidates respectively. The school has also produced its own anti-epidemic screens, which can be moved to the front of the candidates' seats during the examination if they so wish, or the candidates can choose to sit in the screened seats at the back of the auditorium.

This year, the "local and regional examination centres" arrangement was implemented again, with the majority of student candidates returning to their home schools to sit for the examination. The Principal of the school, Mr Mui Chi-yip, said that if candidates who live in the neighbourhood are rushed to the school during the examination after undergoing the mandatory examination under the cordon sanitaire, there will be extra seats available for them, but they will be required to write a report after the examination.

As for the infected or close contact candidates can choose to go to Penny's Bay Special Examination Hall or results grading, Mui Chi Yip said that the class teacher has reminded all students to pack a "go bag" beforehand, in addition to the examination materials, but also should bring snacks, etc., so that they can relax in the revision of the examination is approaching, he used the lyrics of the band Mayday "Stubbornness" "the direction of the wind / more suitable for flying / I'm not afraid of the millions of people block / only afraid of their own surrender," he believes that the candidates of the current year He said that it is not easy for the candidates to go all the way, but at the same time, he teaches them to be more resilient and encourages all the candidates to continue to persevere with the hope that the end is in sight.

In a posting on social networking sites yesterday, the Secretary for Education, Mr Yeung Yun-hung, again appealed to enterprises and members of the public to adopt flexible working hours as far as possible during the first two weeks of the DSE to avoid the peak hours of 6.30am to 8.30am, so as to facilitate smoother traffic flow for candidates travelling to the examination centres.

Ming Pao Reporter