Nearly 40,000 parents join campaign to scrap ‘too difficult’ Hong Kong primary school exam: can YOU pass it?

Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim has refused to budge on cancelling city-wide exams for Primary Three pupils as he dismissed suggestions that the controversial tests placed undue pressure on the youngsters and their educators.

"Scrapping the tests would mean that we are going backwards. We should address the problem of excessive drilling," Ng told reporters at a cocktail reception yesterday. "Students need to experience the joy of learning. Therefore I am strongly against the idea of imposing drills on students."

However, education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, accused Ng of skirting responsibility and putting the blame on schools for forcing students to take part in drilling exercises in order to cope with the tests, known as the Territory-wide System Assessment.

"This is really unfair to schools," Ip said. "The Education Bureau keeps asking underperforming schools to improve their test results but the paper questions are really hard for the students to answer within such a short time frame."

TAKE THE EXAM: Can you answer this Hong Kong Primary Three maths test?

He added: "Schools have no option but to impose drills on students so they can cope with the tests."