From the Editor

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November 1999

Education reform simplified: Putting the cart before the horse 

In the wake of more than 20,000 students' having got zero marks in their certificate examination, the educationalists have begun to drive home the point that the present education system is full of problems.

Under the present education system, students are assessed primarily by those few weeks that conclude the certificate examinations and the A-levels rather than the other hundreds of days combined.

Based on the theme "Learning for Life", the Education Commission has suggested a list of changes. Instead of having an Academic Aptitude Test, it is suggested that direct promotion and internal assessment should be used. Also, the certificate examination and the A-levels should be replaced by only one public examination.

Their suggestions are bold. However, they have just pointed out the problems of the present system, but they have not given the solutions.

It's easy to spot what's wrong; but it's not solely the examination system.

Having two public examinations in the student's senior years in secondary school might be too harsh; the curricula of the examinations might have already lost touch with today's needs. However, simply cancelling the examination is not the key to the problem.

What the Education Commission is trying to do is to use another set of criteria to judge the ability of the students. Such a way may give better statistics; we might have fewer students getting zero marks. However, it would just be like changing the marking scheme so that more students could pass.

If they think examinations hinder students from learning other things, they should make sure that students have enough "other things" to learn after the examinations are cancelled. It's disappointing that the Education Commission does not suggest concrete ways of how to change the curricula so that students could receive an all-round education. Without a sound curriculum, students would again be consumed by thoughts of examination only.

They always emphasize that the mediocre students suffer from the present system because examinations keep telling them that they are nothing but failures. But how about the outstanding ones? Will the new system benefit the mediocre at the expense of the outstanding ones?

"Learning for Life" is conceptually good. However, a university is not the only place for learning. If students don't do well academically, they should find other ways to display their abilities. What we need to do is not to keep lowering the entrance criteria for the universities, but to upgrade the standard of the students.

As they always say, "He who knows all the answers most likely misunderstood the questions." What the educationalists should do is to read the questions carefully again. Education reform should be based on how to upgrade the standard of the students, not just the cancellation of the examinations.

Lousia Yan
Editor-in-Chief

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