The head of an education concern group has called on the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) to find an alternative mode of assessment for Hindi and Urdu, after the body announced that the languages will be dropped as university entrance exam subjects from 2025.

Mervyn Cheung, from the Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Group, criticised the move, citing figures that showed at least 50 students took Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) Urdu and Hindi exams in the last academic year, compared to just eight who took German, and 18 who sat Spanish exams.

Speaking on RTHK's Backchat programme, Cheung stressed that Hong Kong is an international city with thousands of ethnic minority students, and that their cultures and languages should be respected.

"One channel for the HKEAA might be to liaise and collaborate with the local universities, because all of them do have very sophisticated language centres," he said. "Even if some kind of specialist manpower needs to be engaged, universities are in a very solid position to do so."

Also appearing on the same programme was John Tse, the executive director of Unison. He called on the HKEAA to be more proactive in finding alternative modes of assessment for Hindi and Urdu.

"I think it's a good idea to explore more opportunities rather than accepting the reality, so it's important to really think of alternatives and not just say 'we're not offering, period, that's it'," he said, adding that the HKEAA needed to think of "a way out" instead of limiting opportunities for others.