Make Hong Kong’s TSA test a real tool for learning, rather than one for management

Kerry Kennedy says Hong Kong has strayed far from the vision of its own education reform, and if the culture isn’t changed, getting rid of the TSA or its replacement won’t ease pressure on students

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A student taking the DSE exam this year. Hong Kong’s education system, like many other systems in the Asia-Pacific region, is based on widespread testing from the earliest years through to the Diploma in Secondary Education. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 10:01am, 22 Apr 2017Updated: 7:50pm, 22 Apr 2017

Parents who think all their problems will be solved if the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) is abolished will be sadly disappointed. Hong Kong’s education system, like many other systems in the Asia-Pacific region, is based on widespread testing from the earliest years through to the Diploma in Secondary Education (DSE). Hardly a week goes by for students in Hong Kong schools where they do not face a barrage of tests – it is part of the culture of schooling. The TSA is currently seen by many as part of that culture but this view runs counter to the original intention of education reform proposals.

Those proposals were outlined in 2000 in the Education Commission’s report, “Learning for Life, Learning through Life”. The “ultimate purpose of assessment” was clearly stated: it should be “to provide information that helps to promote learning and teaching, and forms part of the teaching process”. This is what the TSA was proposed to do, in opposition to a traditional system of assessment based on constant testing . Therefore, it was seen as an innovation in assessment!

What went so badly wrong and will the government’s new Basic Competency Assessment (BCA) fix these problems?

It’s not just the TSA; Hong Kong’s education system is built to ruin happy childhoods

For one thing, we must recognise the role Hong Kong publishers play in our current predicament. It did not take them long to see that there was a market in producing mock TSA exam papers. This includes both local and international publishers.

Walk into any school education bookstore in Hong Kong and there is bound to be a section on TSA mock papers. For parents, this is often seen as an opportunity to help their children get ahead by practising TSA-like questions. For teachers and schools, it is also an opportunity to help their schools move ahead by having students practise these questions. This is where the charge of drilling comes from, because students practise answers over and over again.

Yet the real problem is with the publishers who see the TSA as yet another way to make money out of education. Why will they view the BCA any differently?

A customer buys assessment papers on the first day of the Hong Kong Book Fair last year. It did not take publishers long to see that there was a market in producing mock TSA exam papers. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Of course, no one forces either parents or schools to buy mock exam papers and in this sense publishers simply make them available. Yet there is a remarkably competitive spirit among Hong Kong schools that are constantly seeking to improve their “market” position.