AN examination intended to decide whether primary school pupils go to Chinese or English-language secondary schools has been scrapped following criticism from teachers and parents. Internal school assessments will now be used in an effort to ease the pressure of exams on pupils, according to the Education Department. Known as the Revised Method of Medium of Instruction Grouping Assessment, the new scheme has been approved by the Education Commission and will be adopted for entry to Secondary One in September 1994. There will be Chinese and English subject groups under the revised assessments. For most primary pupils the English group will consist of English language only, while the Chinese group will comprise the rest of the subjects. Parents and teachers will be able to judge pupils' English or Chinese proficiency and decide which schools the pupils should go to, based on the assessment results. Director of Education Dominic Wong Shing-wah said the new scheme would not mean any extra work for teachers and would lessen the pressure on students. ''As the revised method will emphasise the importance of continuous internal assessments, the principle of a balanced curriculum in primary schools is upheld,'' Mr Wong said. The department proposed the so-called Secure Hongkong Attainment Tests in April to dictate the teaching medium for pupils. Meeting Point last night welcomed the scrapping of the tests but said the revised assessment would also add pressure to students, although with fewer exams. The group said it was unreasonable to judge a student's language ability by internal assessments, which test academic performance. It feared the assessments would fail to achieve their intended aim, because most parents regarded English as more important than Chinese. The parents might press their children to work hard at English so as to send them to an English-medium school. It urged the Government to scrap the language streaming policy and make more effort to promote mother-tongue education. The Hongkong Professional Teachers Union also said the department should try to promote mother-tongue education with the new assessment. Union chairman and legislator Cheung Man-kwong said the department should regularly send inspectors to monitor English-stream classes to make sure teachers were qualified to teach in English and the students were able to learn with that medium of instruction.
