Hong Kong needs to get rid of the TSA

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Susan Ramsay |
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Hong Kong Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim speaking on on TSA at the Central Government Office in Tamar.

Hong Kong needs to abolish the TSA

Students are just too stressed, with pressure from their parents and the routine tests and lessons.

I think the TSA is pretty much useless to judge the students, and I know because I did it. The questions are sometimes extremely easy , but some are actually weird. Seems like I was taking an IQ test rather than an assessment for student’s performance.

Nevertheless , it is a waste of time as the assessment for three subjects, Chinese , English , Mathematics, took more than 3 hours.

On the other hand , some schools may force the teachers to train their students with TSA exercises. This disrupts their teaching schedule , and also stresses students as they already had a lot of homework to do. With this added burden, students have less time to rest.

I think that instead of these actual exams, the Education Bureau can collect different examination samples from different schools . This show the teaching process more precisely and accurately . Yet , it will not affect student’s study and time.

Ryan Kwok Chun-yin, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School

From the Editor

Thank you for your letter, Ryan. I know the TSAs are unpopular, but I don’t think we can blame the Education Bureau for this one. While I would agree that our education system is in a mess and not servicing the needs of students today, I feel that the EB needs some benchmark to measure how well students are doing.

If it were up to the schools to select, undoubtedly they would only select the best. We have exams for many reasons, but it is one of the ways in which the authorities can be certain the work is done by the students who have enrolled. Many of the other things students do are revised by teachers, tutors, parents or friends. Only when it’s the student vs the system, do we get to see a true reflection of their abilities.

Susan, Editor

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