General Studies Is Splitting Into Humanities and Science: Which Subject Is Your Child On This Year, and Does It Count?

By Wong Sir · 31 August 2026

Many parents think General Studies (常識科) is already gone. Many others think nothing has changed. Neither is right: General Studies is being replaced year by year, two year levels at a time. Which subject your child is on depends on the year they are in.

The Short Answer: 2026/27

Year	Subject this year	Counts for secondary allocation?
P1, P2	Humanities + Science	No
P3	General Studies	No
P4	Humanities + Science	No
P5	Humanities + Science	Yes, from term 2
P6	General Studies (last cohort)	Yes, under transitional rules sent to schools

So if you have two children at the same school, one on General Studies and one on Humanities is completely normal.

The full timeline:

• 2025/26: P1 and P4 start the new subjects
• 2026/27 (this year): P2 and P5 join
• 2027/28: every year from P1 to P6 is on the new subjects, and General Studies is gone

Schools don't get to choose. Every primary school must follow it, as set out in EDB Circular No. 12/2025 (Humanities) and No. 13/2025 (Science).

Why the Change?

General Studies started in 1996 and covered a bit of everything: health, family, society, nature, science, technology and China. It was broad, but broad and thin. A child could spend six years touching every topic without going deep into any, and science in particular got squeezed out by everything else.

So it is being split in two: one subject about people and society, one subject just for science.

Humanities: Mostly Existing Content, Reorganised

To be clear, Humanities (人文科) is not a brand-new subject. EDB itself says most of it is existing General Studies topics reorganised, with more Chinese history, culture and geography added.

It is built on six strands, and your child's textbook contents page follows them:

1. Health and Living: growing up, physical and mental health, self-care, personal safety
2. Environment and Living: nature, conservation, our country's natural environment
3. Financial Management and Economy: what money is for, saving versus spending, the economies of Hong Kong and the mainland
4. Community and Citizenship: rights and duties, the rule of law, care and inclusion
5. Our Country and Me: national history, Chinese culture, national identity
6. The World and Me: world cultures, information literacy, our country's links to the world

The only genuinely new strand is Financial Management and Economy. Primary children are now formally taught how to handle money. This is where home can help most: give your child a little pocket money and let them decide how to use it. That teaches more than a worksheet.

One more thing: the new curriculum spells out what each year level must learn, rather than grouping years loosely, so you can see exactly what your child should know this year.

Science: This Is the Real Change

I genuinely think Science (科學科) is good news. Primary children finally get a subject just for science, revisited in more depth each year:

• Life and Environment: the human body, plants and animals, ecosystems, the world under a microscope
• Matter, Energy and Changes: materials, light, sound, electricity, heat, force and motion
• Earth and Space: the earth's resources, weather and seasons, the solar system
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Society: how experiments work, space technology, engineering design

The science in General Studies was mostly about remembering facts. The new subject wants children to ask "how do I know that's true?" and to try things with their own hands. That skill carries straight into secondary school.

Secondary Allocation (呈分試): What Changes

The "呈分試" are the three sets of school results (P5 term 2, P6 term 1, P6 term 2) that schools submit to EDB for Secondary One allocation. There is no P4 呈分試. If a tutorial centre says otherwise, they are selling you something.

From P5 term 2 this school year (2026/27), the subject weightings change as follows (the total stays at 38; source: EDB Circular Memorandum No. 228/2024):

Subject	Before	Now
Chinese	9	8
English	9	8
Mathematics	9	8
General Studies	6	—
Humanities	—	4
Science	—	4
Visual Arts	3	2
Music	2	2
PE	0	2

Three things to notice:

1. Humanities and Science together are worth 8, more than General Studies' 6. The new subjects matter.
2. Chinese, English and Mathematics each lose a point. They are still the heaviest, but the gap has narrowed.
3. PE counts for the first time. Visual Arts drops from 3 to 2.

How exams and coursework are split is set in the curriculum guides. Science is the clearest example:

• P1 and P2: avoid written exams; coursework counts for everything
• P3 and P4: exams count for 40% to 60%
• P5 and P6: exams count for 80%, coursework 20%

In other words, in the two years that count for allocation, exams still carry most of the weight.

What about this year's P6, who are still on General Studies? EDB sent the transitional arrangements to schools directly and hasn't published them, so the most reliable answer is to ask your school.

My Honest View

Both subjects go deeper, and I think that is worth it. But let's not pretend this is just a new name:

• General Studies took at least 11% of lesson time
• Humanities and Science now take at least 7% each, 14% together
• Schools' flexible time drops from up to 25% to 22%

Your child's curriculum load really has gone up.

This year the pressure falls on P5. They are the first cohort whose new subjects count for allocation, while their Chinese and English syllabuses step up too. P4 is on the new subjects but not scored, and P6 is finishing the old one. If you are going to focus your energy anywhere, focus it on P5.

How Parents Can Help

Don't panic. With steady support, most children settle in within a term. The ways schools already assessed General Studies still apply to Humanities, so nothing starts from zero.

• Humanities: talk with your child. Ask what they learned today and follow up with curiosity, not drilling.
• Money: let them make small decisions with real money. Ten minutes of the real thing beats a worksheet.
• Science: take them outside to observe things, and visit the Science Museum. Let them sit with not knowing the answer for a while and work it out.
• School still finding its feet? Give it time. New textbooks for P1, P2, P4 and P5 are already out; P3 and P6 books are chosen this year for use in 2027/28. Fill the specific gaps you notice rather than buying a pile of extra exercises.

The curriculum has changed. How children learn has not.