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EMB to investigate as parents claim teachers asked weaker students to stay away from assessments

The Education and Manpower Bureau is investigating 90 primary schools which posted 'unusually high' absentee rates in student assessments held earlier this year.

According to a senior EMB official, well in excess of twice the average number of students were missing at the schools when they held tests for the the second Territory-Wide System Assessment in May and July.

Parents have accused teachers of persuading weaker students and those with learning difficulties to 'call in sick' to boost the school's overall results.

The assessments are intended to give schools and the government a clearer picture of how students perform in the key subject areas of Chinese, English and maths.

They were introduced to Primary Three students last year and extended to Primary Six classes this year. From next year, Form Three students will also be assessed.

Sam Hui Chark-shum, assistant secretary for education and manpower, said absentee rates had increased this year. 'We feel that the situation this year is quite unusual,' he said. 'Across the whole of Hong Kong there has only been a slight increase, but it is still around 2 per cent. But in a certain number of schools the figures are very high.'

Mr Hui said the bureau had identified 90 schools where more than 5 per cent of pupils in either Primary Three or Primary Six did not take the assessment - more than 21/2 times the average absentee rate. Of those, 15 schools had more than 5 per cent absent in both years.

He said the EMB had issued formal requests to the schools this week demanding further information about the students who did not take the assessment, including a full list of names and reasons why they were absent. They were given two weeks to comply.

The problem was serious if schools were trying to influence their results. 'If there is any suggestion of professional misconduct, we will order an independent investigation,' Mr Hui said. That would be handled by the Council for Professional Conduct in Education. He was confident the majority of schools would provide full details. 'There may well be legitimate reasons why these students did not take the test,' he said.

'The assessment is not like a public exam, the students don't get anything out of it,' Mr Hui said. 'If schools give a clear and accurate account of acceptable reasons, there is no reason for us to pick on them.'

Some students had been at school but had not taken the test. Mr Hui said that while there might be acceptable reasons for this - they were feeling unwell or  had been misbehaving - the bureau would investigate further if there were 'too many' cases.

He said the as-yet uncorroborated reports of teachers encouraging special needs students to skip class were a cause for concern.

The accusations were made by  the Hong Kong Association for Specific Learning Difficulties and the Parents' Association of Autistic Children in Mainstream Education groups at a subcommittee meeting in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

Mr Hui accepted that some children with special needs would need particular arrangements for assessment, such as extra time or question papers in larger print, but said the EMB was prepared to assist schools to make those provisions.

'Schools should not make these children feel like they are being isolated,' he said.

Yeung Hoi-chung, acting chairman of the Aided Primary School Heads' Association, said there should be a full investigation into the matter.

'The government needs to look into this to find out exactly what happened,' Mr Yeung said.

He said he had heard of schools persuading weaker students to skip class when there was an assessment, but did not know whether the stories were true.

'If they are really doing this, then it is not very good. Schools should not be trying to fake results just to boost their reputations,' he said.



90 schools in 'absent pupils' probe