Even Hong Kong’s parents are sick of the stress their children are experiencing in school.
Parents’ groups are repeating their calls to do away with Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) tests after Primary 3 students took their exams earlier this week.
Now News reported that Parents United and the Talk Foundation surveyed 517 parents with children in Primary 1 to Primary 3, and found that 91 percent support cancelling the Primary 3 TSA.
Sixty-two percent also said their children experienced “very high” or “high” levels of stress, and 54 percent attributed it to the TSA.
Parents have long complained that drill exercises ahead of the controversial exams put too much pressure of their children.
In the past, the test results have been used in reports assessing how each school performs.
The survey comes months after the Education Bureau announced that it would randomly select one out of 10 pupils to take the exam this year, and not issue any performance reports in an attempt to address parents’ concerns.
But schools that wanted to receive a report had to require all their students to take the test, which 230 schools did. Those students sat for their English, Math and Chinese exams on Monday and Tuesday.
According to a recent report, primary school children in Hong Kong are tasked with seven pieces of homework per day on average, and even more on weekends.
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