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Antony Leung is on the government's side when it comes to the much-criticised TSA. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong's TSA exam marks should be simple pass or fail to lower the stakes for pupils, ex-official says

Former Education Commission chief Antony Leung Kam-chung played a key role in abolishing the dreaded Academic Aptitude Test in 2000, but he is on the government's side when it comes to the much-criticised Territory-wide System Assessment.

Instead of endorsing calls by parents and education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen for the exam to be scrapped, Leung said the repetitive drilling involved in the preparation could be ended if the marking scheme were changed from a numerical scale to a simple pass-fail distinction.

"It is reasonable the bureau should know the results, but at some point the results were made public ... and the nature of the assessment altered," he said.

After obtaining the results, "some organisations running the schools questioned why different schools in the same district would fare so differently. This has turned a low-stakes assessment into something with high stakes."

The TSA exams started in 2004 as a way for the Education Bureau to keep track of pupils' progress and schools' results. The exams are held for Primary Three and Six and Form Three pupils.

Although officials have said students do not need to do any special preparation, repetitive drills have persisted as schools seek to lift test scores to boost their reputations. With student numbers in steady decline, schools also see good results as a way to attract enrolments and avoid being forced to close down.

The bureau has said the TSA exams are not the benchmarks in deciding which schools will close.

Leung added: "The TSA's problems are much more complicated than that of the AAT ... which was a meaningless test of children's intelligence quotient."

In November, education minister Eddie Ng Hak-kim said a committee had been set up to review whether the TSA was too difficult, how the questions should be arranged and whether the exams could be taken every other year by a sample of pupils, instead of every year by everyone.

But Ng came under fire for turning down a request to attend a public hearing on the issue in the Legislative Council yesterday, saying he would be out of town for "personal reasons". Ng was represented by his undersecretary, Kevin Yeung Yun-hung.

Leung quit the government in 2003 amid criticism for buying a luxury Lexus before announcing a budget proposal to increase the tax on new cars.

He is also chairman of Food Angel, an organisation that collects surplus food to produce free lunches for the needy. It serves more than 6,000 nutritious hot meals and food packs to more than 100 charity partners in Hong Kong every day.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: TSA should be simple pass or fail: ex-official
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