The Education Bureau has proposed that students taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education economics exam can skip part of the test from 2028.

It came after the bureau announced that students would be allowed to only take the compulsory test for the Chinese history DSE exam from 2026.

In a circular published on Monday, the bureau said the requirement for students to choose one of the elective tests would be removed for the economics DSE exam, and that students only sitting the compulsory paper would be rewarded a score of level 5 at most.

The bureau said this would allow students to focus on studying for the compulsory part of the exam to enhance learning effectiveness.

It said the measure would be implemented at secondary 4 starting from the 2025-26 school year, and would apply to the 2028 DSE exams.