There are three main types of local secondary schools – government schools which are operated by the Government; aided schools which are fully subvented by the Government but run by voluntary bodies; and private schools, some of which receive financial assistance from the Government. Government and aided schools deliver a curriculum recommended by the Government. They offer free and secondary education.

Besides, there are some international schools which offer non-local curricula and serve primarily non-Chinese speaking students and foreign nationals.

To cope with the challenges of the 21st Century and the demands of the rapidly developing knowledge-based society, the Government has implemented the 3-year new senior secondary (NSS) curriculum at Secondary 4 in September 2009.

This flexible, coherent and diversified curriculum aims at catering for students’ varied interests, needs and abilities, as well as nurturing students’ whole-person development and lifelong learning capabilities. The first cohort of NSS students graduated in the summer of 2012.

All students can now benefit from six years of secondary education. At the end of Secondary 6, students take one public examination - the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination, which replaces the former Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination and Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination. The first HKDSE examination was held smoothly in 2012. The HKDSE qualification has gained extensive recognition locally and worldwide, in international benchmarking studies such as the National Recognition Information Centerreport and the Tariff System of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service in the United Kingdom. At present, around 280 overseas tertiary institutions, including renowned universities such as Cambridge University and Yale University, have accepted the new qualification for admission purpose, and more are being added.