Exam Board Criticism Very Destructive: Ip Kin-yuen

Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen on Friday accused the Education Bureau (EDB) of 'destructively' undercutting the city's examinations authority by publicly criticising it over a question on a history paper in this year's Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams.

He was speaking after the Examinations and Assessment Authority (EAA) expressed deep regrets over the bureau's complaints that the question has "seriously hurt the feelings and dignity of the Chinese people who suffered great pain during the Japanese invasion of China".

Candidates were asked if they think Japan did more good than harm to China during the period between 1900 and 1945.

After photos of the exam paper appeared online, the Education Bureau (EDB) also issued a late night statement saying it "deeply regrets and condemns" the design of the exam question, saying it was a leading question and that supplementary information provided to the candidates was one-sided.

But Ip disagreed with this sentiment, saying that like any history exam paper it allowed students to disagree with the statement.

He also said that the EDB's intervention was "really unusual", and that the EDB instead of blaming the EAA should explain what the authority did wrong, and look into how the it sets exam questions.

"I think it might bring about serious harm to the education sector because examinations [are] so important in Hong Kong, and you are discrediting the Examination and Assessment Authority; that is not something constructive, it’s very very destructive in fact," he said.

"So I think in fact [if] the Education Bureau is blaming the authority, it should explain very clearly what the authority is doing wrong, [what] it has done wrong."

"I think there are a lot of misunderstandings here, so the most important thing now is to create some environment that we can discuss about it rationally," he told RTHK's Joanne Wong.

But Ho Hon-kuen, the chairman of the pro-Beijing group, Education Convergence, said the question setters should have considered that the exam candidates were just secondary school students who may not be knowledgeable on facts.

He suggested that the question should have been switched around instead, and asked students if Japan did more harm than good in the early 20th century.

Meanwhile, EAA secretary general So Kwok-sang told reporters on Friday morning that he can't comment on the question at the moment as this will affect the fairness of the paper's assessment. He added that the authority respects the professional opinions from the education sector, and will seriously follow up on the matter.

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