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Will Clem

Educators, legislators criticise EMB careers guide reference to 'embarrassed' low-scoring HKCEE pupils

Educators and legislators have criticised the 'insensitive' language used in a government careers guidance handbook for Form Five graduates that dismisses low-scoring HKCEE students as 'an embarrassed group . . . deemed hopeless' by good schools.

The author of the article, which was posted on the Education and Manpower Bureau's website and is due to be published next week, has blamed poor translation from Chinese for the connotation.

But critics rejected the explanation, saying the tone of the two versions was 'more or less the same'.

In an article aimed at students who had gained at least 14 points at HKCEE, Peter Chiu Wing-tak, vice-chairman of Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and Guidance Masters, said students with 14 to 16 points could 'be regarded as an embarrassed group'.

Students get one point for an E and five for an A. Fourteen points in the best six subjects is the threshold set  by the EMB for students to gain a Form Six place in their own school, although in reality many find the quota to be insufficient.

Mr Chiu wrote that although the 'embarrassed group'  could find Form Six places at 'schools with relatively poor performance', they would be 'deemed hopeless' by those with good results.

'I am frankly appalled by such statements,' said Phillip Moore, associate vice-president of Hong Kong Institute of Education.

The public use of such descriptors damaged students' self-confidence and resulted in a downward spiral that created a 'debilitating condition of 'learned helplessness' where engagement in learning is avoided at all costs'.

'This 'I cannot do it because I do not have the ability' belief overrides all others,' Professor Moore said.

The Frontier legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing said the tone of the article was 'terrible'.

'Many students get 14 points. You call them an embarrassed group - what does that mean? You should be encouraging students instead of denigrating them.'

Fellow legislator Audrey Eu Yuet-mei, of the Civic Party, said the wording of the article was unfair to students who had worked hard but failed to achieve outstanding results.

'I think the more objectionable word is this word 'hopeless',' she said. 'These people need help, not bashing, not labelling.'

Ms Eu said it destroyed the good work of people who tried to tell students that exam results did not determine everything.

William Yip Kam-yuen, chairman of the Aided Secondary Schools Heads' Association, said the language was unacceptable.

'If you say you are embarrassed, it means you have done something wrong and therefore feel embarrassed about it. But these students got 14 points at HKCEE, they didn't do anything wrong,' he said.

Getting more than 14 points placed students in the top 30 to 40 per cent, Mr Yip added,  a 'great success' for students from less privileged backgrounds.

He said it would be more appropriate to say the students' results were marginal or borderline, as they still stood a good chance of going on to Form Six, but would need to 'think tactically'. Last year around 27,000 students got 14 or more points to compete for the roughly 25,000 available places.

Mr Chiu, who is also guidance master at La Salle College, Kowloon Tong, said he had only written the Chinese version of the article and  was unaware of the EMB's English translation. He said he would take up the issue with the EMB, as use of the phrases 'embarrassed' and 'hopeless' misconstrued his original meaning, which referred to the dilemma such students faced.

However, Ms Lau and Ms Eu dismissed the explanation, saying the wording of the Chinese and English versions was 'more or less the same'.

A spokesman for the EMB said the fact that it was published meant the bureau felt the content was acceptable.

The handbook can be found at: www.emb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeid=2343&langno=1



Handbook language 'insensitive'