About 65 per cent of over 2,000 teachers believe the government should scrap a city-wide exam that they say has lost its original purpose and forced endless tutoring and drilling sessions, a survey shows.
Territory-wide system assessments (TSAs) started in 2004 as a way for the Education Bureau to keep track of pupils' study progress and schools' education results. The exams are held for Primary Three and Six and Form Three pupils. The primary-level exams are not used as a reference when graduates are allocated secondary school places.
The exams include Chinese, English and mathematics.
But some educators said officials from the bureau, when visiting schools, often asked the schools to improve their TSA results, which put pressure on school operators, who would then tell teachers to drill their pupils for the exams.
In the survey, conducted by the Professional Teachers' Union in March and April, about 70 per cent of the 2,055 teachers who responded to questionnaires by mail or online said TSA preparation had affected their daily teaching. Almost 70 per cent set up after-school tutoring sessions lasting an average two hours per week.
About 97 per cent said they required Primary Three and Six pupils to buy an average of three extra TSA exercise books.
"My son once cried and asked me: 'Mum, what's the meaning of my existence? Is it just to do homework?'" said Josephine Cheung Man-sen, whose autistic son studied for the TSA.
Many parents who had children with special educational needs studying at mainstream schools said the children had to rely on antidepressants to ease the pressures arising from extra studies, Cheung said.
Another parent, Doreen Ho Mei-yee, said teachers never told parents specifically that TSA, unlike the other two major exams for Primary Six pupils, would not affect their children's chances of entering good secondary schools.
She also said the bureau had provided little information about the system.
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