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Following is a question by the Hon David Chu and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (May 3):
Question:
At present, candidates sitting the listening tests in Use of English of the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination and English Language of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination are required to bring their own radios for listening to the test materials broadcast by Radio Television Hong Kong, while in the past the test materials were broadcast through the public announcement ("PA") facilities at the examination venues. It is learnt that the broadcast of the listening test held on April 3 was interfered with and the performance of many candidates was affected. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the criteria it will use to adjust the results of the candidates affected in this incident; whether it will inform these candidates of the adjustment made in the marks of this test when it announces the results;
(b) whether it will consider making arrangements for the affected candidates to take the listening test again; if not, of the reasons for that;
(c) of the respective numbers of complaints received each year by the Hong Kong Examination Authority concerning the broadcasting quality in listening tests since the implementation of the practice to broadcast the listening test materials on the radio and in each of the three years prior to the implementation of the practice;
(d) of the measures to prevent the radio broadcast from being interfered with again in future; and
(e) whether it will consider resuming the past practice of broadcasting the test materials through the PA facilities at the examination venues, or by other means; if not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
According to the investigations by the Hong Kong Examinations Authority (HKEA), the complaints about the Hong Kong Advanced Level (HKAL) Use of English examination that took place on April 3, 2000 are centred around two issues. The first is that a power failure occurred in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long during the listening test, interrupting the radio broadcast of the test material for about two seconds. The other area of complaint is that a section of the test material had a hissing background noise which lasted about three minutes. This section is an extract of a live radio programme and was included to add a degree of authenticity to the test material.
My reply to the specific points raised in the question is as follows:
(a) The papers of the HKAL Use of English examination in question are being marked. As soon as marking is completed, the HKEA will conduct various analyses to ascertain how marks should be adjusted, taking into account the interruption of the radio broadcast. As regards the question of the background noise, the HKEA has written to all HKAL Use of English candidates to explain that the marks of the part affected by the background noise would be adjusted by making reference to the candidates' performance in the other parts of the paper, and the proposed adjustment method. When the marking of papers and various analyses are completed, the HKEA will decide how the marks should be adjusted and whether individual candidates should be informed of any adjustments made. In addition, the HKEA will brief the media on this subject when the HKAL results are released in early July.
(b) The HKEA has considered but does not favour the option of re-examination. A compulsory re-examination will bring undue psychological pressure to all the candidates and could be viewed as unfair to those candidates who are content with the quality of radio reception. An optional re-examination would on the other hand result in two groups of candidates having taken two different papers, which will lead to problems in equating the standards of the two papers. On
balance, the HKEA takes the view that it would be more appropriate to deal with the complaints by mark adjustments than by re-examination.
(c) The number of complaint cases concerning the reception of listening test materials for the Hong Kong Certification of Education Examination (HKCEE) English Language (Syllabus A), HKCEE English Language (Syllabus B), and HKAL Use of English subjects, as from three years before radio broadcasting of the test materials commenced, are as follows:-
HKCEE English Language (Syllabus A)
- radio broadcast of listening test materials commenced in 1998
- total number of candidates each year : around 14,000
Year No. of Complaints
1995 1
1996 5
1997 1
1998 1
1999 9
HKCEE English Language (Syllabus B)
- radio broadcast of listening test materials commenced in 1995
- total number of candidates each year : around 110,000
Year No. of Complaints
1992 72
1993 59
1994 80
1995 28
1996 16
1997 8
1998 5
1999 23
HKAL Use of English
- radio broadcast of listening test materials commenced in 1997
- total number of candidates each year : around 32,000
Year No. of Complaints
1994 17
1995 27
1996 54
1997 6
1998 9
1999 57
(d)&(e) Prior to the use of radio broadcast, the HKEA provided headphones to candidates, and candidates would listen to a cassette tape broadcast in each examination centre through a loop system. This method entailed considerable costs in the storage, maintenance and delivery of equipment and other logistical problems. This method was also not totally free of reception problems and depending on the circumstances of individual complaints, the HKEA had to consider whether adjustment of marks was necessary.
In fact, the testing materials in question had been checked before the examination and the background noise was considered to be acceptable. Nonetheless, the HKEA will draw experience from the April 3 incident to prevent interruptions in radio transmissions and to ensure the quality of listening test materials in the future. The HKEA will also explore better methods to deliver listening test materials but, because of the drawbacks explained above, the HKEA has no intention of reverting to broadcasting cassette tapes through a loop system at examination centres.
Ends/Wednesday, May 3, 2000
Issued at HKT 14:58
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