Student Urges Court To Review Exam Question Saga

A form six student has launched a legal challenge against the Examinations and Assessment Authority's decision to invalidate a question on this year's DSE history exam about Sino-Japanese relations.

The Education Bureau had called for the exam board's move, with Education Secretary Kevin Yeung complaining that the question - whether Japan did more good than harm to China between 1900-45 - was “leading and biased”.

The application for a judicial review was filed on Wednesday by the Secondary Students Action Platform on behalf of student Loh Ming-yin, who sat the history exam.

The group’s spokesman, Isaac Cheng, said the move to scrap the question has a wider implication on Hong Kong’s freedoms.

"You can see that this was an obvious decision because of political reasons. The pressure came from the Education Bureau or even the central government. So in doing this judicial review, we are actually protecting the freedom of academics and the freedom to talk about different issues," Cheng said.

Meanwhile, pro-establishment lawmakers pressed the government during a Legco meeting to increase monitoring of statutory bodies like the exams authority in light of the controversy over the history paper.

But Home Affairs Secretary Caspar Tsui said there are already mechanisms in place to make sure these bodies act professionally and properly.

Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen also dismissed the call for more monitoring, saying it would be "contradictory to the intention of setting up these statutory bodies."

"If the government or pro-establishment camp tried to force that kind of mindset, I think it will push away people," Ip said.

"If I join, I know usually these are voluntary works, I'm contributing to the society through participation. If you don't trust me, why bother appointing me to these statutory bodies?"