Primary school test papers not helping students
In their efforts to reform our education system, I hope the relevant authorities will make the reform of exam paper setting and marking methods their first priority.
Hong Kong society pays a lot of attention to exam results. Very few people, however, ask if the exam setting authority is setting exam questions which are designed to help students to learn the things they need to learn.
The best example of how an exam paper should not be set can be found in the Secondary School Allocation Placement (SSAP) test papers.
They are probably the major reason for our students' deteriorating academic and language standards. These papers are not set to ascertain whether a Primary Six student has attained a good foundation in the subjects examined. They are set for the express purpose of separating students into five different bands. Our primary school students spend the majority of their time in their last two years preparing for it. The students learn exam-taking techniques and little else; whatever they have learned will be quickly forgotten after the exams.
I have attempted some of the questions in some sample SSAP test papers and I know I would fail the exam. I believe most chief executives in large corporations in town would also fail. If our primary students are already beating our business leaders in Primary Six exams, how come university and secondary school graduates joining our workforce have such poor language skills and low academic standards? The simple answer is: we have been setting our exam papers in the wrong way. If the present SSAP papers are replaced with three papers which are designed to ascertain if our primary school graduates have grasped the basics and have a good foundation in Chinese, English and mathematics, we are half-way home in our education reform.
Our present SSAP exam does not have an English language test paper. We will see a dramatic improvement in our students' English language skills if a simple English test paper, plus a simple English listening, comprehension and speaking test is added to our Primary Six SSAP test papers.