Rote-learning and high-stakes testing throughout school 'are out of place in modern Hong Kong'
A review of Hong Kong's examination authority has called for a major overhaul of the organisation, criticising it for perpetuating a culture of rote-learning and failing to keep up with education reforms.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) has this week made public the final report of the strategic review it commissioned to chart its future development in response to the reforms.
The review, carried out by IBM Business Consulting Services and Vision in Business Consulting, identifies key weaknesses in Hong Kong's examinations system, which it blames on 'serious gaps and disconnections in assessment policy' and the limited financial resources and legal framework the authority operates under. Assessment, it says, is still regarded as 'an event that occurs at the end of the education train, instead of something that deeply influences learning and teaching'.
'Hong Kong has been struggling to combat an entrenched paradigm of rote-learning of factual content that is driven by high-stakes tests and examinations at all levels of schooling,' it says. 'But curiously, while it has instituted a range of bold reforms to improve learning and teaching, this has not included substantial assessment reforms.'
The authority, which is self-financing and relies mainly on examination fees for income, should also receive government funds to finance a new strategic role in developing and implementing new forms of assessment, the report recommends.