Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim said in his blog that he hoped to work with parents and schools to improve the mechanism for the Territory-wide System Assessment, a city-wide exam for the Education Bureau to keep track of pupils' study progress. This followed a heated debate at a forum hosted by the Professional Teachers' Union last Saturday, in which one of the participants, academic Fung Chun-ip, said the exam should be abolished as the data about student performance was biased. Those backing the exam said the problem lay with schools drilling students.
The Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University has decided to close its P3 laboratory, which was opened in 2009 to detect new viruses such as Sars. The lab has conducted just two tests per year, with operations costing more than HK$100,000 every four hours. After its closure, only four laboratories are left - at the HKU medical faculty, the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health.