Parents who spend hours preparing children for Hong Kong TSA exams have 'herd mentality', education expert says

About half of the parents of Hong Kong pupils have spent time preparing them for the controversial Territory-Wide System Assessment (TSA) - even though the majority do not believe the tests are useful, a survey has found.

Education experts said the findings reflected a herd mentality among parents.

"When everybody else is doing it, you feel like you also have to do something," said Dr Tik Chi-yuen, chief executive of the Hong Kong Institute of Family Education (HKIFE), referring to exercises designed for the exams.

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The non-profit HKIFE interviewed 527 parents of Primary Three and Six pupils by phone from October 28 to 31. It found that around half of the parents had spent time with their children preparing for the tests in the past six months.

A third of those parents had spent at least an hour a day on TSA exercises with their children, in addition to their regular homework, while a quarter said they spent more than two hours a day preparing for the tests.

The survey also showed that the majority of parents did not feel the tests were a useful part of their children's education.

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Since 2004, pupils in Primary Three and Six and in Form Three at government schools have taken the test, which aims to assess pupils' abilities in Chinese, English and mathematics so the Education Bureau can monitor their progress and their schools' academic standards.