announced that candidates who sat in the 2006 exam who wished to retake Chinese or English subjects were to take the new syllabi. Concerns were raised about whether or not those candidates, who were used to the old syllabi, could adapt to the structure of the new syllabi in nearly half a year. Discontinuation Owing to the transition from the seven-year curriculum (five years of secondary and two years of sixth form / matriculation) to a six-year curriculum of secondary education, the HKCEE and the HKALE were discontinued from 2012 and 2014 respectively and replaced with a new examination, the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE). Controversies 1997 Theft of examination papers and marking schemes by HKEA senior officer Several examiners reported to the HKEA that a candidate scored almost full marks in almost every paper he sat and his answers were identical to those in the marking schemes and even included the typing mistakes. The HKEA suspected that someone had improperly obtained the question papers and marking schemes in advance of the examinations. The case was referred to the ICAC for investigation. The ICAC found that the candidate had been an under-achiever at school and was not expected to get high grades. Further investigations revealed that he was the son of Mak Cheung Wah, then an assistant senior subject panel of the HKEA. Mak stole his colleagues' keys and reproduced them to enable him to open the safe deposits to obtain and photocopy question papers and marking schemes in every subject for his son to read prior to the examinations. Mak's son memorised the answers and wrote them on the answer scripts to score high marks. The ICAC only managed to solve the case and arrested the pair moments before the release of the results. Mak pleaded guilty to allowing unauthorised persons to have access to confidential examination documents. He was ordered by the Eastern Magistrates' Court to do 220 hours of community service. He was also dismissed by the HKEA and lost his entitlement to pension amounted to HK$720,000. His son was disqualified by the HKEA and his grades were annulled. Since then, the HKEA and the ICAC reviewed and revised the security arrangements of examination documents. 2005 English Language (Syllabus B) grading error In 2005, the oral component of the Syllabus B English language examination was incorrectly added to the total score because of a