By Sammy Heung
The number of students taking the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme in Hong Kong has increased by nearly 20 per cent over the past five years, with more students and parents preferring its flexibility to the city鈥檚 traditional, exam-oriented university entrance system.
More than 2,600 students taking the IB exam will learn their results on Sunday, while those of nearly 55,800 Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) candidates will be out the week after on July 16.
According to figures obtained by the Post from the IB body, the number of students 鈥 including those taking the May and November sessions 鈥 rose from 2,193 in 2021 to 2,406 in 2024.
The figure for the May session in 2025 alone reached 2,628, which was 19.6 per cent higher than in 2021.
The number of global IB exam candidates also grew by 25.9 per cent from 170,637 in 2021 to 214,761 in 2024. The figure for the May session in 2025 was over 202,000.
While international curricula such as the IB were first offered by the city鈥檚 international or private independent schools, the Education Bureau said nine schools under the direct subsidy scheme (DSS), which are regarded as semi-private, currently provide both the IB and DSE curricula.
There was also one DSS school that only offered the IB curriculum, the bureau added.
Ngai Shan-ting, president of the Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations in Kowloon City district, said non-local curricula such as IB had become more popular among Hong Kong students because more parents felt the DSE, which adopted a more traditional, exam-oriented approach, might not suit their children.
鈥淔or IB and International Advanced Level (IAL), the approach is relatively more creative,鈥 she said.
鈥淪ome parents may have studied an exam-oriented curriculum in the past, and they may want a different path for their children.鈥
But Ngai also said the costs of studying an international curriculum remained a consideration, and that the IB course could be much more expensive than the DSE.
Diocesan Boys鈥 School, for example, charges Form Six students taking the DSE exam an annual fee of HK$63,330 (US$8,068) for the 2025-26 academic year. By comparison, it costs an IB candidate HK$145,090 a year.
For St. Paul鈥檚 Co-educational College, the fees for DSE and IB students are HK$75,900 and HK$118,700, respectively.
Dion Chen, chairman of the Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council, said that more DSS schools have launched different international curricula, including the IB and IAL, over the past decade.
According to the Education Bureau, the number of DSS schools that offer both DSE and international curricula other than IB has increased from seven to 11 between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
Chen, who is also the principal of the semi-private Ying Wa College, said his school would be providing IAL for the first time this September.
鈥淧arents may consider sending their children for overseas studies in the future and may think the curriculum is more suitable for their children,鈥 he said.
鈥淔or IAL, the exam sessions are spread out over a period of time, which means the pressure will not necessarily come from a single examination session.鈥
The demand for teachers for IB, which requires students to study six subjects and complete three core components, would be higher than that of IAL, in which students normally take three to four subjects, he added.
Vijay Narayanan, a 16-year-old student at Island School, who will take the IB exam next year, said his parents were interested in exploring universities outside Hong Kong and felt the IB offered a more holistic approach to education.
He said the IB system requires students to answer extended and advanced questions outside the syllabus.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e able to do those really hard questions, then on the day of the exam you should be able to do the easier and medium-difficulty questions,鈥 he said.
Narayanan added that the IB also places a lot of emphasis on internal assessments, which trains students to be more resilient.
Hui Ka-kiu, 18, who studied at Wah Yan College in Kowloon and has just completed his DSE, said he considered himself more suitable for the DSE as he was more comfortable drilling papers and memorising marketing schemes.
Preparing for the exam required him to adapt to the system and be familiar with its marking schemes and rules.
鈥淎s long as you are familiar with the type of exam questions [set in the past], you鈥檒l be fine for the public exam,鈥 he said.