Forcing students to wear masks during oral examinations will make grading much harder, teachers said this week.
They were responding to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority's (HKEAA) decision to make masks compulsory in the English and Putonghua oral exams of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) which starts next week.
'I believe this is grossly unfair to both students and examiners,' said Craig Boswell, a native English teacher (NET) at a secondary school near Aberdeen and one of ten teachers who criticised the decision. 'You can't see the students' lips moving. This makes it harder to understand what they are saying. This is supposed to be a face-to-face examination but it's more like a telephone conversation,' he said.
Hung Chau-yin, a Putonghua teacher at St Paul's Co-educational College, said that masks affected pronunciation which, in turn, could affect their grades.
An HKEAA spokeswoman said their policy was justified. 'What concerns us most is fairness, providing the same environment for all students. We understand that it [the mask policy] might have an impact on some candidates, but safety is our priority.'
Perry Bayer, an oral examiner for the HKCEE, supported the policy. 'The worst thing Hong Kong could be at the moment is complacent and risk the return of the Sars epidemic,' he said.