Education Bureau finds ‘inadequacies’ in development of history exams for Hong Kong secondary school students
- The Education Bureau concluded there were lapses in the quality assurance measures for the exams, with one unnamed staff member blamed
- The inquiry follows a furore earlier this year over an exam question that asked whether Japan “did more good than harm” to China between 1900 and 1945
A government task force investigating the development of this year’s history exams for secondary school students has concluded a Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) officer did not do his job properly.
In a report on Thursday, the Education Bureau concluded there were lapses in maintaining a high standard of question-setting for exam papers, laying the problems at the feet of one staff member in particular, whom it did not name.
“An HKEAA officer did not comply with some of the HKEAA rules and regulations, and did not adhere to the quality assurance measures in the development of the question papers,” the bureau’s task force said.
“There were also inadequacies in the existing HKEAA quality assurance measures that might have hampered the monitoring of the question paper development process.”
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The report hinted at failings by the exams body, which had a quality control mechanism in place, but one that only functioned properly when all personnel carried out their duties in strict compliance with the rules.
But, as a task force spokesman noted, the review found that in the different stages of the question paper development process – including presetting, moderation, checking and proofreading – the officer concerned did not comply with the existing regulations.