Number of Students Placed in Secondary Schools under DSA Scheme and Talent Areas Covered under Scheme

Mr Darryl David asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the number of students who have been admitted into secondary schools under the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme in the last five years; (b) whether there are DSA talent areas that are more popular than others; (c) whether the Ministry will consider increasing the total number of places under the DSA scheme in secondary schools; and (d) whether the DSA talent areas can be expanded to allow more diversity in DSA admissions.

The number of students admitted via the Direct School Admission (DSA) for secondary schools scheme has increased from about 3,500 students in 2019 to about 4,400 students in 2023. As a proportion of the Primary 6 cohort, the number of students admitted via DSA has increased from around 9% to around 11% respectively.

There are sufficient DSA places for eligible students to enrol across the school landscape. Currently, we cater DSA places for about 20% of each cohort, or about 8,000 places in 2023. There is no need to expand the number of DSA places at this point.

Around one-third of applications are under the Sports and Games talent category, and a quarter are for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) category. The remaining applications are spread across Leadership and Uniformed Groups, Performing Arts, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Languages and Humanities, and Visual Arts, Design and Media.

Over the years, schools have expanded their DSA selection processes to recognise diverse strengths, and take into consideration potential, interest, character, resilience and drive. The Ministry of Education will continue to work with schools to ensure that the DSA talent categories are sufficiently varied, to cater to the diverse interests, talents and strengths of our students.