DSE Exam Changes Needed Due To Class Disruption: PTU

The Professional Teachers Union (PTU) said adjustments need to be made to the city's university entrance exams given the serious disruption of face-to-face teaching because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The PTU made the comments during a press conference unveiling the results of a survey of teachers preparing students from the 2021 Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams. The online survey was carried out from August 21 to 26, and a total of 841 teachers were interviewed.

Around 95 percent of teachers surveyed believe that online learning has affected their students' preparation for the DSE exams and that it had also affected their students' learning progress.

Around 90 percent of teachers surveyed felt that their teaching process was lagging behind because of the disruptions caused by Covid-19, and more than 60 percent said they would be unable to complete all their teaching for the exams in the new school year.

Some of the adjustments to the exams that were suggested in the survey included reducing the number of questions candidates are required to answer, or reducing designated chapters in the Chinese reading paper.

The PTU said it would not be as simple as the Education Bureau taking a one-size-fits-all approach for example, by scrapping whole units of the DSE.

The union's vice-president, education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, said there were rumours that the EDB had been thinking of scrapping the Independent Enquiry Study (IES) portion of the Liberal Studies DSE.

"When we decide to abolish the component of IES in the examination, it will be unfair for some of the students," Ip said, adding that some students have already completed work on that portion while others have not, and said the government needs to consider whether abolishing it would be fair on the students.

The union said the results also suggests that classes across the city are lagging behind the curriculum at different rates, so a more tailored approach is needed.

Ip said they will conduct a follow-up survey to get a clearer handle on the situation.

“I hope that the government can take reference to our survey, and the results of the survey to consider and to decide [the] method that is fair to students while taking [into] account of the special needs of this year. So when we reduce, adjust the scope of the examination curriculum or syllabus, we will have to take into consideration the varieties and the actual settings.”