But Hong said the question should never have appeared “based on the consensus of human conscience”, and because students should be taught empathy for those who suffered from historical events such as Japan’s invasion and occupation of much of the country between 1937 and 1945.

“On major issues of right and wrong, such as invasions, massacres and ethnic cleansing, we should never lead students in their basic education stage to discuss their positive values. There should not be any country that asks their students to discuss the good or harm of such events in textbooks or even in test questions,” she wrote.

She added that the scope of the question was so large and complex that even university scholars would need time to research it.

“Therefore, asking secondary students to handle a question with their own knowledge that is beyond their capability in about 20 minutes is completely unreasonable, and pointless,” she said.

The HKEAA, which stressed that any invalidation could greatly affect its existing mechanisms for assessing public exams, was expected to hold a special meeting to discuss the issue.

Education officials were also expected to visit the HKEAA on Monday to investigate the question-setting mechanism.

So Kwok-sang, the authority’s secretary general, said the body had not reached any decisions on whether they would follow the bureau’s request, adding that the council’s meeting would look at issues comprehensively before making a move.

“We understand the impact could be far-reaching, I am sure council members would understand and follow-up carefully and seriously,” he told reporters on Monday morning.

Their emarks came as the Communist Party’s People’s Daily ran a commentary decrying the HKEAA as “arrogant” for not immediately indicating the question would be cancelled, and adding the city’s education sector needed to “scrape the poison off its bones”.

Education minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung last week condemned the reference materials as biased and the question as leading, saying “there is no room for discussion” on what the answer should be – that “Japan only did harm but no good” given its invasion of China.

The HKEAA, which stressed that any invalidation could greatly affect its existing mechanisms for assessing public exams, has said it would hold a special meeting to discuss the issue in detail before deciding on the bureau’s request.

But a veteran examiner and marker said Hong Kong exam authorities should follow their standard practice of checking the performance of a sample of students before agreeing to an Education Bureau request to scrap the question.

Wan Ho-yin, who has more than 20 years of experience in handling public exams, told the Post the HKEAA, an independent and self-funded statutory body, should “think twice” about the bureau’s unprecedented demand.

Wan, who had served as a marker, chief examiner and assistant examiner at the HKEAA from 1994, said it would be unfair if exam authorities did not look at student performance before making a decision. He has not been personally involved in marking exams in recent years.

Beijing blasts ‘poisonous’ exam question, warns of ‘rage’ of Chinese people

On Saturday, former Examinations and Assessment Authority secretary general Choi Chee-cheong also warned of dire consequences if the question was invalidated without sufficient grounds.

Wan said the chief examiner and assistant examiners typically meet after testing and look at a sample of students’ performances – sometimes involving as many as 200 exam papers – before determining if adjustments to the marking scheme were needed.

“The usual thinking is that invalidating an exam question should be the last resort. The move to cancel a question should have minimal impact on most candidates’ [grades],” he said.

Wan, principal of ELCHK Yuen Long Lutheran Secondary School, said while he believed there was room for improvement in how the question was presented, students should not have their performance affected by its removal.

“Some students might be really confident that they could score high on that question, while others might not,” he said.

“Perhaps a majority of students could reach the conclusion that [Japan] did more harm than good [to China] … students could answer the question citing reasons such as short-term financial support [provided by Japan] would not be able to compensate for the harm which they had done to the [Chinese people], or they could even argue that the sources were one-sided.”

Exam authority employees resign amid controversy over history question

History teachers who appeared at a press conference held by the 100,000-member Professional Teachers’ Union on Sunday also argued the question should not be scrapped, expressing concerns that there would be less room to teach about sensitive issues in the future.

“Teachers have been teaching students according to the existing curriculum guidelines impartially and in a fair manner … and now that there are still problems arising, it feels like the rules could be changing [from year to year],” said a history teacher surnamed Chan, who has taught the subject for more than 10 years.

But Nicholas Muk Ka-chun, vice-president of the 35,000-member Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said he believed the authority should strike the question without delay.

“By invalidating the question, it could respond to the harm that it did to many Chinese people,” he said. “It is the lesser of two evils. Although the move could lead to unfairness for some students, it would become an international laughing stock if it [the question] is not invalidated.”

The paper sparked outrage among pro-establishment figures in Hong Kong and mainland internet users, who said the question blatantly ignored the suffering of the Chinese people during the eight-year Japanese occupation.

The Education Bureau first lashed out on Thursday evening at the HKEAA for setting the question, an hour after the Office of the Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong threw its weight behind criticism levelled by some pro-Beijing figures.

State news agency Xinhua slammed the question as “poisonous” in a commentary that warned the “rage of all Chinese sons and daughters would not be able to be settled” if it were not removed.