Hong Kong's primary six students and their parents can finally take a sigh of relief after years of hard work, as they received the admission results for their desired secondary schools on Tuesday.

The results came a day after the Education Bureau announced that a total of 48,545 students participated in the secondary school places allocation system this year. 

The allocation system for public secondary schools is divided into two stages: discretionary places and central allocation.

At the discretionary places stage, students may apply to no more than two secondary schools directly during the application period in January, and the results will be released in March. Students will not be centrally allocated a school place if they already secure a discretionary place. For the central allocation, students need to submit their preferences through their primary schools to the bureau in May, with the results to be announced in July. 

This year, 74 percent of the students were allocated their first-choice secondary schools, while 91 percent were assigned the first three choices, according to the EDB.

If parents and students are not satisfied with the central allocation results, they will need to register at the school they were assigned to and then "knock on the door" of their preferred schools one by one to inquire whether they accept students' applications.

China Daily photographer Andy Chong recorded the moments of mixed emotions at Yaumati Catholic Primary School (Hoi Wang Road).