Editorial | Changes to exams are not ideal, but needed
- Authorities rightly set out the adjustments to school assessments and examinations as soon as the academic year began last week. And while some changes may even be unfair to some students, there is only so much the exam authorities can do when confronted by a pandemic

Uncertainty is hardly a preferred option when it comes to dealing with the city’s notoriously competitive university entrance examinations. But with the outlook for the coronavirus pandemic anything but clear, it makes sense to prepare for the worst.
The authorities rightly set out the adjustments to school assessments and examinations as soon as the academic year began this month. Once again, the Diploma of Secondary Education Examinations, slated in the second quarter of 2021, are to be postponed by a month to help cope with class disruptions.
The Chinese and English language oral exams are to be cancelled, as are the school-based assessments for elective subjects. A backup plan also is in place for the exams to be held from June 3 until late June, with the results provided by August 31, according to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.
The changes are not ideal, especially when some students may have exams in the morning and the afternoon on the same day under the compressed schedule. The cancellation of the oral tests also makes assessment incomplete and even unfair to some students. But there is only so much the exam authorities can do when confronted by the world’s most severe pandemic in a century.

The decisions may seem premature to those who are optimistic of a quick return to normal life. After all, the exams are still more than half a year away. But when the authorities were forced to adjust the exam during the height of the second wave of outbreak in spring this year, few could imagine the pandemic’s impact would last as long as it has.