The controversial Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) may be revised to contain less reading and simpler vocabulary after being investigated by a new government-appointed committee, according to the SCMP.
The 22-member committee was set up in October after parents protested that Primary Three students be spared from the assessments. The committee is due to submit an advisory report to the government by early February. One committee member, Chairman of the Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, James Lam, said that Primary Three students from a selection of schools may be invited to try the revised TSA papers this June.
However, some parents have not been appeased by the news of the revisions, instead asking the government to stop making exam results public in order to remove the incentive for schools to drill their students.
The tests, which were introduced in 2004 to assess Primary Three, Primary Six and Form Three students, have been slammed for the academic burden they impose on pupils. The exams, which test students’ basic knowledge in Chinese, English and maths, have been met with backlash from children, parents and teachers alike, who say that they lead to intense drilling and excessive amounts of homework.
They may have a point: a survey in December showed that primary school students spend more time doing homework than their secondary school counterparts, while a survey last summer indicated that 80 percent of HK’s primary schoolchildren are taking between eight and 16 hours of extra classes a week.
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