How Hong Kong can make accounting count for secondary school students

I refer to Mr Tom Wong’s letter, “Business and accounting paper in Hong Kong’s DSE exam should not be dumbed down” (May 27).

Your correspondent criticised the Education Bureau, saying it shouldn’t remove certain components from the Business, Accounting and Financial Studies curriculum. He said this risks seriously dumbing down the course and further stated how frontline teachers have demanded that accounting and business management be taught as separate subjects.  

As someone who studied the BAFS subject in high school and is now reading accounting at university, I have some reservations about his arguments.

I believe that it made sense to remove the components Mr Wong mentioned, that is, accounting treatments for dissolution of a partnership, and calculation of cash and inventory loss from incomplete records. These have little to do with workplace practices or what I’m studying at university. Therefore, as long as the bureau has no intention of introducing new subjects, the arrangement can relieve the pressure on students.

However, I agree that the subjects should be separated. When the Education Bureau combined business management and accounting into a single subject, it claimed this could ensure a broad-based learning experience. However, the consequence is that the compulsory curriculum is too wide and incoherent, while the elective curriculum lacks depth. Also, students are deprived of the right to study both accounting and business management deeply.

Splitting BAFS into new subjects will solve the problem. Unlike the current oversized compulsory curriculum, the new electives can cover more advanced components. I would suggest introducing preparation of cash-flow statement and basic consolidation of corporations to the accounting curriculum, as these are basic requirements for university-level accounting.

I hope the Education Bureau can develop new subjects to better prepare students for university.

Charlie Chan, Tuen Mun