The Award Scheme aims to encourage students to learn history through reading, and create a favourable reading atmosphere and culture in school; and to arouse students’ interest in learning history, encourage them to engage in self-directed learning through the e-platform, so as to explore historical knowledge and develop proper values and attitudes.The 2024 Award Scheme was held from April to August 2024, with about 29 000 students from 165 secondary schools participating, which is the highest in the 6 years.

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Award Scheme this year specially selects historical articles relevant to the celebration of the founding of the PRC, and sets up two distinctive prizes, namely the “Blessing Designs Award in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC” and “Special Prize in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC”, so as to enable students to understand how people celebrated National Day in different times, and nurture their sense of belonging to our country and enhance their national identity through reading. After assessment, 5 student teams received the “Special Prize in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC”. Besides, from more than 12 400 blessing designs submitted, 6 blessing designs received the “Blessing Designs Award in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC”.

This year, 22 students with excellent performance received a “Merit Award”. 4 student teams with 15 students received the newly-added “STEAM Award”. 11 student teams with 37 students received the “Creativity Award”. 4 student teams with 14 students received the “Academic Award”. In addition, 90 schools received the “School Participation Award” for their participating students attained a completion rate of 71% or above. At last, about 5 400 students performed satisfactorily received the “Appreciation Award”, and more than 10 900 students obtained the “Certificate of Participation” for encouragement.

The ‘Prize-presentation Ceremony of the “Engage in reading to ring in National Day”— Junior Secondary History e-Reading Award Scheme 2024’ was held in Loke Yew Hall, The University of Hong Kong on 20 November 2024.

The Secretary for Education, Dr CHOI Yuk-lin, officiated at the Prize-presentation Ceremony and presented prizes to awardees. She commended their excellent performance and encouraged them to explore the pleasure of studying history through reading, as well as nurture a high standard of moral values. Also, the attendees voted for “My Most Touching Blessing Design in Celebration of the Founding of the PRC” from the 6 awarded blessing designs on the day of the Ceremony. After the Prize-presentation Ceremony, awardees and their respective teachers shared their learning experiences and insights. There was also an exhibition in the venue, displaying the winning entries of the “Special Prize in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Founding of the PRC”, “Blessing Designs Award in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Founding of the PRC”, “Creative Award”, “Academic Award” and “STEAM Award”, to showcase the learning achievements of the awardees.