Top performers with massive haul of 5**s in Hong Kong DSE hail from nine elite schools. Why is this?

By Sue Smith

Congratulations to the students who received excellent results in the DSE exams. It is a tough course, requiring skills and hard work in a number of different subject areas and such high-level success is to be admired.

However, it is interesting to consider whether these students scored so well because of the schools they went to. As indicated in the article, nine elite, well known, prestigious schools were where these high achievers attended. The question needs to be asked whether those prestigious schools could turn any student into a high achiever.

These are highly selective schools which test rigorously. The students who are chosen to attend these schools have often attended similar, highly academic feeder primary schools. You could argue that these elite schools and their primary school counterparts are training students to be high achievers from a very young age.

Such high level success is of course not just the product of one factor but is contributed to by the ethos of the school, the efforts of the teachers and the intelligence and hard work of the students. But elite schools, by their nature, have an elite intake, often decided by an entrance exam. Most of these schools have a student body with middle-class parents who have the personal resources to spend money on tuition and other assistance to help ensure their child's success. The article praises the schools where these high achievers were educated but there are many factors, beyond the control of the school, which likely contributed to this success.