Revamped tests extended to all Hong Kong primary schools

Hong Kong’s education minister has announced plans to put all primary school students through a new competence exam to replace the unpopular Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA), dismissing concerns that it will be a repackaging of the same test.

Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim on Monday revealed plans to extend the “basic competency assessment research study” to all primary schools this year, following a trial run at select schools last year to replace the TSA, which is widely detested because of the drilling pressure it puts on pupils.

The Education Bureau has yet to decide whether Primary Three students should also take the new test in 2018.

“The basic competency assessment research study is not a ‘resumption’ of the previous TSA, but embodies the professional recommendations put forward by [a committee tasked by the government to review the assessment],” Ng said.

He explained that the trial, which featured simpler and shorter exam papers, conducted at just 56 schools last year in place of the usual citywide TSA, eliminated the issue of overdrilling, while improving learning and teaching.

Ng said the extension of the trial to all primary schools this year would “allow more schools to participate and understand the new initiatives” and provide the bureau with “more comprehensive feedback to continue to review and enhance the arrangements for TSA”.