The Education Bureau has announced that schools will remain closed until April owing to the coronavirus outbreak, though Form Six public written exams will take place as scheduled.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung told the press on Tuesday that classes would be resumed no earlier than April 20 and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) exam will take place on March 27 as planned. However, exams for Chinese oral, music, and physical education will be postponed to May and results will be announced a week late, on July 15.
A photo of HKDSE candidates in an examination hall. File photo: GovHK.
First detected in Hubei, China, over 80,000 people globally have been infected with Covid-19, whilst over 2,600 have died from the SARS-like disease, including two in Hong Kong.
Yeung said that the HKDSE exams were crucial to students’ higher education and employment: “With enough preparatory work and protections, we believe the HKDSE exams can safely begin on March 27 as scheduled,” he said.
When asked by a reporter if the policy of continued school suspensions was at odds with the exams taking place, Yeung said that candidates do not have social contact with each other, so there must be different considerations for different class suspension and exam scenarios.
Kevin Yeung. File photo: RTHK screenshot.
Candidates who display symptoms of respiratory infection will be prohibited from sitting the exam, Yeung said. He added that everyone should wear face masks inside the exam hall and use hand sanitizer provided by the venue.
He also added that seats would be spaced out and any candidates travelling from mainland China would need to arrive in the city two weeks prior to the tests in compliance with quarantine policies.
Distance learning
With regards to the impact of class suspensions, Yeung said distance learning at home cannot completely replace in-person classroom learning. However, with the adjustment of school events and supplementary classes, he said there was no need to shorten the summer vacation.
“Extending the class suspension has been a difficult decision. Yet as the WHO [World Health Organization] predicted, the epidemic will last for a while and the Bureau thinks it is the safest decision to ensure the physical well-being of students,” he said.
Nearly 90 per cent of students surveyed by pro-democracy group Demosisto said they felt the disease had impacted their preparations for the exams. Fewer than 20 per cent found the online resources provided by the Education Bureau useful, they said at a press conference on Tuesday. The poll was conducted online amongst 11,466 Form Six students – representing a quarter of the 2020 HKDSE candidates.
Isaac Cheng, vice-chairperson of Demosisto said that, in view of the epidemic, the Bureau should postpone the HKDSE exams for a month in the interests of students.
The Legislative Council Finance Committee passed a HK$3 billion anti-epidemic funding application last Friday with a portion covering a HK$3,500 subsidy for individual students during the suspension period.
HALIFAX – Chorus Aviation Inc. says its shareholders have voted to approve the sale of the company’s regional aircraft leasing business to HPS Investment Partners.
The Halifax-based company says the $1.9-billion deal was greenlighted by 98.1 per cent of votes cast by shareholders at a special meeting. The transaction needed approval by a two-thirds majority vote.
Chorus also says the waiting period mandated under U.S. legislation has expired and that it has received approval from Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Chorus announced the sale of its plane leasing business to New York City-based HPS in July for $814 million in cash and $1.1 billion in aircraft debt to be assumed or prepaid by the buyers at closing.
The deal marked a one-eighty for Chorus, which bet big on aircraft leasing just two years earlier by buying London-based plane-leasing outfit Falko Regional Aircraft Ltd.
Chorus, which also provides regional service for Air Canada via Chorus subsidiary Jazz Aviation, says the sale remains subject to the other regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
TORONTO – AGF Management Ltd. says its net income attributable to equity owners totalled $20.3 million in its latest quarter, down from $23.0 million in the same quarter last year.
The investment manager says the profit amounted to 30 cents per diluted share for the quarter which ended on Aug. 31, down from 34 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Total net revenue for the quarter amounted to $102.0 million, up from $84.0 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, AGF says it earned 37 cents per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 34 cents per diluted share a year ago.
The company says its total assets under management and fee-earning assets totalled $49.7 billion at Aug. 31, up from $42.3 billion a year earlier.
Kevin McCreadie, AGF’s chief executive and chief investment officer, says the company was pleased to see early signs of improvement with positive retail net flows complementing its solid investment performance amid an uncertain economic backdrop and significant market volatility.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
As of January 2024, Canada is home to more than 3,600 recreational cannabis retail shops and this number is increasing annually with a single store to every 10,000 Canadians. The retail sector has been facing multiple challenges and one is surely overabundance of stores within smaller communities. Too many retailers compared to users of cannabis. The use of cannabis has remained relatively the same, while multiple retailers and online sales forces are competing for this marketplace.
Failures within the retail field are not a surprise, as Tokyo Smoke closes its multiple stores, and most shops’ profit margins remain small and diminishing over time. Mass closures may happen within certain provinces such as Ontario where situations of multiple retailers are situated right beside a competitor. Massive amounts of revenue have been collected by provincial governments while these stores remain open to every possible financial flux possible.
The black market remains healthy and profitable. An excuse to legalize pot was to challenge illegal pot sales and make it difficult to sell this pot outside of legal means. 22% of Canadian pot smokers get their supply from the black market. They say the pot tastes better and is slightly less costly. Legal pot management is costly and this cost is passed onto the customer. With gummy sales growing, the cost of management by legal means is difficult and costly too.
It seems the government may need to rethink its policy regarding cannabis and the possibility of legalizing further types of illicit drugs in the future. A total ack of imagination exists within the policy network where old-fashioned prejudice towards addiction and the use of narcotics is seen as criminal and threatening to society. All the while the number of traffic stops due to drivers under the influence of narcotics continues to grow, and the use of drugs by the youthful generation continues to be a problem. A solution to our society’s problems will never come from present-day authorities.
