Citizenship, Economics and Society: Planning the Junior Secondary Subject

Quick answer: Citizenship, Economics and Society, usually shortened to CES, is the junior secondary PSHE subject that replaced Life and Society, which had run since 2010. Schools were encouraged to introduce CES from September 2023, with full implementation for all Secondary 1 students from September 2024. It has its own 2024 Curriculum Guide and sits inside Personal, Social and Humanities Education alongside History, Geography and Economics.

What did CES actually replace, and why does that matter for planning?

Life and Society was the junior secondary PSHE subject before CES, and it had been in place since 2010. Treating CES as a light refresh of Life and Society misreads the change: CES has its own curriculum guide, published in 2024, and its own content structure. A scheme of work built by relabeling old Life and Society units will miss what the new guide actually asks for.

What does a junior secondary CES sequence broadly need to cover?

CES combines citizenship content, economic literacy, and social studies across the three junior secondary years. Because it sits in the same KLA as History, Geography and Economics, panels often plan it in coordination with those subjects rather than in isolation, especially where content genuinely overlaps, such as basic economic concepts also touched on in Economics electives later at senior secondary.

How does CES connect to what comes later at senior secondary?

CES is the junior secondary lead-in to Citizenship and Social Development, the senior secondary core subject that replaced Liberal Studies. The two are separate subjects with separate guides, but a coherent PSHE panel plan treats S1 to S3 CES as building the civic-reasoning and source-analysis skills that CS will require from S4. A comparative civics unit such as European Integration – Complete Civics & History Unit is useful groundwork for that kind of comparative reasoning, without claiming to be CES content itself.

How do you assess CES without a public exam attached?

Since there is no HKDSE component at junior secondary, assessment is entirely school-based: short source-response tasks, structured discussion with a marking rubric, and periodic written pieces that build toward the reasoning demands of senior secondary CS. Building this gradually across S1 to S3, rather than introducing extended written analysis suddenly in S3, gives students a fairer runway.

How do you differentiate CES tasks across a mixed cohort?

Approaching: shorter source extracts with pre-taught vocabulary and a structured response frame, drawing on general economic literacy support like European Integration – Complete Civics & History Unit for scaffolded comparative content.

On level: full source-based tasks with independent reasoning, matched to the CES guide's stated outcomes for the year.

Above level: introduce basic market and economic-structure concepts from a resource such as Market and Market Structures to extend the economics strand ahead of senior secondary Economics electives.

What goes wrong when planning CES?

Recycling Life and Society materials wholesale. CES has a distinct 2024 guide, and content that isn't in it shouldn't anchor the scheme of work.

Treating CES as identical to senior secondary Citizenship and Social Development. They are different subjects at different stages with different guides and different assessment models.

Skipping the economics strand because a panel is staffed mainly by History or Geography specialists. CES explicitly includes economic literacy, not just civics and society content.

Frequently asked questions

Is CES material here EDB-approved or officially endorsed?

No. This article and the linked resources are independent teaching material. They are not EDB, CDC or HKEAA publications and carry no official approval for CES or any other subject.

Is there a public exam in CES?

No. CES is a junior secondary subject with no HKDSE component; the related senior secondary subject with a public exam is Citizenship and Social Development.

When must all schools have CES fully running?

Full implementation for all Secondary 1 students was set for September 2024, after schools were encouraged to begin introducing it from September 2023.

What subject did CES replace?

Life and Society, the junior secondary PSHE subject taught since 2010.

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