The Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System is divided into two stages: Discretionary Places (DP) and Central Allocation (CA).

The Discretionary Places Stage

Secondary schools may decide on their own suitable period for accepting applications from Primary 6 students but the period should fall between 1 December 2003 and 20 February 2004. Primary 6 students applying for a discretionary place in a school they favour should note the following points:

All secondary schools participating in the SSPA System are allowed to reserve not more than 20% of their Secondary 1 places as DP for admission of students.
DP application is not subject to restriction on school net. However, each student may apply to ONLY ONE secondary school listed in the ¡§Handbook for Application for Secondary 1 Discretionary Places¡¨, otherwise his/her chance of acquiring a discretionary place will be forfeited.
For information about participating secondary schools and their application periods, parents may refer to the ¡§Handbook for Application for Secondary 1 Discretionary Places¡¨ available at their children¡¦s primary schools.
Schools may admit suitable students according to their tradition and education philosophy. However, they must make public the admission criteria and weightings.
Schools may arrange interviews, but no written test should be conducted.
Successful applicants will not be allocated a place again in CA. Those who have not been successful in obtaining DP will be allocated Secondary 1 places in CA
The results of DP and CA will be released at the same time in mid July 2004. Parents need not make enquires to the schools they apply for before the announcement of results.
Before deciding on a school to apply, parents should learn more about its educational objectives, culture and admission criteria.
Parents should also consider their children¡¦s abilities, inclinations and interests so as to make a suitable school choice.
Parents may also seek advice from teachers and make reference to available information about the school.


The Central Allocation Stage


Central Allocation is based on school net, banding, parental choice of schools and random number. The main features are summarized as follows:


School Nets


In line with district administration boundaries, the whole territory is divided into 18 school nets.
Each school net comprises all the participating primary and secondary schools physically located in the district and a number of different types of secondary schools in other districts providing school places for the net.
The school net to which a student belongs is determined by the physical location of the primary school the student attends.
A student may apply for cross-net allocation on account of home-moving or residing in another district.


Banding


Students get their allocation bands according to their scaled internal assessments results. The following steps show how this is done:


Students' internal assessments at the end of Primary 5, and both in mid-year and at the end of Primary 6 will be standardized.
Then the average Academic Aptitude Test results of the school in the 1997/98, 1998/99 and 1999/2000 school years will be used to scale and convert their internal assessments.
After that, the converted marks of all students in the same school net will be put into an order of merit.
Finally, the students will be divided into 3 Allocation Bands, each consisting of 1/3 of the total number of primary students in the school net.


Parental Choice of Schools


In late April 2004, the Education and Manpower Bureau will distribute to each Primary 6 student a ¡§Secondary School List¡¨ for the school net he/she belongs to. Parents can choose a maximum of 30 schools from the list and place them in an order of preference in the ¡§Choice of Schools Form¡¨.
The school places allocation procedure is done according to the order of preference indicated.


Random Number


The random number is generated by the computer before running the allocation program. It is used to determine the order of allocation within the same Allocation Band.
The random number has no connection with the Student Reference Number or the student¡¦s personal data.


Allocation Process


Allocation is done on a net basis.


Students in Allocation Band 1 are first allocated Secondary 1 places according to their choices. When all students of this Band have been allocated school places, the computer will proceed to allocate Band 2 students in the same way, and finally Band 3 students. If the demand for a certain secondary school exceeds its supply, students possessing smaller random numbers within the same Band will be allocated a place first.
If a student cannot be allocated a place even after all his/her school choices have been exhausted, the computer will allot a place to him/her from the remaining places in the school net.


Feeder and Nominated School Schemes


A parent secondary school may reserve, after the deduction of repeater and discretionary places, a maximum of 85% and 25% of the remaining places for its feeder and nominated primary schools respectively.
A student who is in Allocation Band 1 or 2 and who has chosen the parent secondary school as his/her first choice is eligible for a feeder/nominated place in his/her parent secondary school. If the parent secondary school accepts all Bands, then Band 3 students will also be eligible.
If there are more eligible feeder/nominated students than the feeder/nominated places available, the order of priority for allocation will be based on the students' Allocation Bands and random numbers until all places are filled.
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