Maggie Ho reports
Exercise books designed to prepare students for the much-criticised school assessments has become “even more ridiculous”, former education secretary Michael Suen said.
A government committee is now looking into the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) after parents complained that the test put too much pressure on their children. The committee is expected to come up with some initial recommendations next month.
Suen told RTHK that although the intention of creating TSA was good, it was now “distorted.”
“There are a lot of TSA exercise books. I have read one or two and I found them ridiculous. They have become even more ridiculous now,” Suen said. “The publishers just want to make more money, so they make the exercises more and more difficult.”
Suen was in charge of education between 2007 and 2012. He admitted that he felt that there was "something wrong" with the TSA when he was in office. But at the time, he said he had no clear idea of just how much pressure students were under. He said there were simply not enough statistics for him to push for changes.
The former education chief said, however, there was no need to scrap TSA and instead students should be selected in random to take the assessments.
A government committee is now looking into the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) after parents complained that the test put too much pressure on their children. The committee is expected to come up with some initial recommendations next month.
Suen told RTHK that although the intention of creating TSA was good, it was now “distorted.”
“There are a lot of TSA exercise books. I have read one or two and I found them ridiculous. They have become even more ridiculous now,” Suen said. “The publishers just want to make more money, so they make the exercises more and more difficult.”
Suen was in charge of education between 2007 and 2012. He admitted that he felt that there was "something wrong" with the TSA when he was in office. But at the time, he said he had no clear idea of just how much pressure students were under. He said there were simply not enough statistics for him to push for changes.
The former education chief said, however, there was no need to scrap TSA and instead students should be selected in random to take the assessments.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1227611-20151204.htm
