Technology has made school exams unnecessary, former Hong Kong finance chief John Tsang says
- City’s education system is outdated and government needs to change it, former financial secretary John Tsang says
- Education technology should be adopted in Hong Kong, rather than just focusing on e-learning and STEM lessons, he adds
John Tsang Chun-wah, who served as financial secretary for a decade before resigning to run for chief executive in 2017, also said on Monday that education technology, which applied mobile tech, virtual reality and artificial intelligence to empower learning, should be adopted in Hong Kong rather than just focusing on e-learning and STEM lessons.
“The education system is outdated,” he said. “What the government needs to do is to change the entire system, [but] I understand that it takes time to push different stakeholders … The schools have a lot of funding but they do not know how to use it effectively.”
Tsang added that he always believed tests were unnecessary when asked whether the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), the city’s university entrance examinations, should be abolished.
“For example, when I did my SAT exam, I was really good at doing multiple-choice questions even though I was not really knowledgeable,” he said, referring to the test widely used in the United States for college admission, adding technology could help track students’ performance.
“We needed public examinations in the past because we had limited school places … but now we even question whether we need university because many companies no longer take candidates’ degrees into account.”