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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kenneth Chan and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (November 4):
Question:
Currently, students of Primary 3 and 6 as well as Secondary 3 are all required to take part in the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) administered by the Education Bureau. The purpose of TSA is to gauge students' attainment of basic competencies in the three subjects of Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics at various stages, with a view to improving learning and teaching. However, some education concern groups and parents have earlier remarked that some schools drill their students in the hope that they will get good scores in TSA, and this practice has exerted great pressure on teachers, students and parents. Also, TSA has dominated learning and teaching as well as the test and examination modes in schools, thus causing a metamorphosis of education. Hence, they request the Education Bureau to abolish TSA. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that the Secretary for Education stated on June 27 this year that TSA was welcomed by most of the schools and teachers, and that it would not exert pressure on students, parents, schools or teachers, of the grounds for such conclusions, and whether such conclusions were based on survey findings; if so, whether it will publish such survey findings; if it will not publish them, whether the Secretary for Education will withdraw the aforesaid conclusions and apologise to the schools and teachers;
(2) whether it will consider abolishing Primary 3 TSA for this school year, and launching a review of Primary 6 TSA; if it will, of the detailed arrangements and work plan; if not, the reasons for that; and
(3) whether it will conduct a comprehensive consultation with teachers, parents, students and the public to gauge their views on TSA's operations and future direction, and decide, in the light of the consultation outcome, if TSA should be abolished or maintained; if it will, of the details of such a consultation exercise; if not, the reasons for that?
ReplyˇG
President,
The Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) is designed to gauge students' attainment of the basic competencies (BCs) in Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics at the end of the three stages, Primary 3 (P3), Primary 6 (P6) and Secondary 3 (S3), in order to progress to higher levels of learning. While the territory-wide assessment data help the Government review policies and provide focused support to schools, individual schools can make use of the school-level report to devise plans for enhancing learning and teaching.
TSA is a low-stakes assessment that does not assess and report performance of individual students. Neither does it affect advancement in education nor allocation of school places for admission to Secondary 1. The data is not used for ranking or classifying schools. It is also not an index for imposing measures on schools to cease operation. The "five nots" are very clear.
My reply to the questions raised by Dr Hon Kenneth Chan is as follows:
(1) Since the implementation of the TSA at P3 in 2004, the Education Bureau (EDB) and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) have been continuously attending to and collecting views and suggestions from various stakeholders on the TSA, including their concerns of workload for teachers and impact on schools and students.
The EDB announced in November 2011 that the TSA would be reviewed to examine areas including implementation arrangements, reporting functions, coverage and question items, etc. In 2012 and 2013, the HKEAA collected opinions from schools in focus groups regarding the TSA assessment design, the benefits of TSA on learning and teaching, the impact on students' learning performance, the implementation of the enhancement measures, and the alternate-year arrangement of P6 TSA. Participants included principals and vice principals of primary and secondary schools, primary school curriculum leaders, panel heads and subject teachers. Schools which voluntarily joined the P6 assessment reflected that the "Item Analysis Reports" were of reference value for them to understand the learning needs of students and plan the curriculum. In 2013, with a view to facilitating thorough deliberations among different stakeholders and soliciting their views and suggestions on other possible enhancement measures for the TSA, the EDB met with the primary and secondary schools councils, the Committee on Home-school Co-operation, the Federation of Parent and Teacher Associations, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, the Education Commission, the Curriculum Development Council, as well as the TSA Concern Group. Consultation work and views of stakeholders were presented in the Paper for the Legislative Council Panel on Education at its meeting on January 13, 2014.
The EDB has been in close communication with all stakeholders since April 2014 when the results of the Review on TSA and the related enhancement measures were announced. A series of seminars were held, following the announcement in April 2014, to inform schools of the implementation of the TSA enhancement measures and to listen to the views of the frontline personnel. In August this year, the HKEAA organised focus groups to consult primary school teachers who served as markers for their views on the enhancement measures for the TSA. Majority of them welcomed the enhancement measure of launching the interactive platform for reporting and considered it of value for providing feedback to learning and teaching.
In order to enhance understanding of schools regarding policies and arrangements for the TSA, the EDB arranged a seminar on October 30, 2015 for principals, vice principals, curriculum leaders, teachers and representatives of school sponsoring bodies. Around 380 participants attended the seminar to share the effective use of assessment data to enhance student performance, making use of the interactive reporting platform to facilitate curriculum planning, designing tasks for assessments as well as making selection of quality textbooks and curriculum resources. Participants generally agreed that the TSA reports could help them identify students' strengths and weaknesses, develop curriculum and make adjustments to learning and teaching. Other than sharing their positive views on the enhancement measures implemented in 2014, the participants also expressed many good opinions on further enhancement measures on the design of assessment papers (e.g. number of assessment items, length of texts, etc.), the coverage and the enhancement of professional support for teachers.
On the whole, stakeholders recognised the significance of the TSA assessment data for learning and teaching. However, we are aware of the concerns expressed recently by education groups and parents about drilling for TSA in schools. Due to the different situations of individual schools, some schools might misconceive that assigning a huge quantity of homework, supplementary exercises and practice drills could consolidate learning of content knowledge, which leads to the impression that the drilling culture in individual schools is attributable to TSA. However, they are two different issues.
The EDB has updated and issued circulars and guidelines on homework and tests on October 31, 2015. It is clearly stated in the circular that with the incorporation of the curriculum targets into daily learning activities, the effective use of different student learning evidence collected (including that not from test or examination), as well as the application of appropriate tools for monitoring, recording and reporting performance and learning progression of students, teachers can devise teaching plans for the next stage of learning without the need to change the teaching and learning as well as assessment approaches for the purpose of TSA.
Schools are also reminded in the circular to formulate an appropriate school-based homework and assessment policy. There should be clear targets and expected learning outcomes for homework. The mode and content of homework should cater for students' learning needs and abilities. Schools should make clear and accessible to parents their homework and assessment policy as well as the types of homework. The EDB will continue to urge schools through different channels and means and provide professional advice, support and reports based on different school practices and the students' learning needs with a view to facilitating self-improvement and sustainable development of schools.
(2 and 3) The TSA is the only assessment at primary levels that can provide objective, comprehensive and quality territory-wide data on BCs. It is irreplaceable by internal tests or examinations in schools. Thus, the decision to abolish the assessment should not be taken lightly. Besides, the TSA is not an assessment administered on a frequent basis. They are conducted at the end of the key learning stages of P3, P6 and S3. In other words, primary students will take part in TSA only once or twice.
In fact, both local and international research evidence indicates that students' learning gap normally starts to widen at P3 or P4 levels. In this connection, the TSA data, which helps teachers understand the attainment level of BCs of P3 students, can be used together with other internal assessment data by teachers to identify learning difficulties and make necessary improvement in learning and teaching at an early stage. Otherwise, the gap between the high and low achieving students will be widened as they progress towards P6 level. Assessments of similar nature for students are conducted in a number of countries such as Australia and Canada, and even in some developing countries. We firmly believe in the need to help students build a good foundation and provide early support. Abolishing the TSA at P3 would represent a regression in this respect.
As for the arrangement of the P6 TSA, a Working Group on Review of P6 Assessment Arrangements was established by the EDB in 2010 to review the arrangements of P6 TSA with a view to alleviating the pressure of frequent examinations on P6 students. The EDB announced in November 2011 that the P6 TSA would be suspended in 2012 and 2014 while the Pre-Secondary One Hong Kong Attainment Test would be suspended in 2013. In view of the positive feedback from P6 teachers to the said arrangement, the alternate-year arrangement for P6 TSA was retained as an enhancement measure for TSA in 2014.
Other than gauging the effectiveness of the 2014 enhancement measures for the TSA, the EDB will further review the implementation details of the TSA. The Coordinating Committee on Basic Competency Assessment (BCA) and Assessment Literacy (the Committee) was established in October 2014. Members of the Committee include academics from tertiary institutions, school principals and teachers. The terms of reference of the Committee are to advise on the direction relating to the development of the BCA project (including the Territory-wide System Assessment and Student Assessment) as well as the enhancement of assessment literacy in schools. The Committee will review the content for assessment, the assessment items and the implementation arrangements, etc. of TSA. It is anticipated that a preliminary plan will be available in the first quarter next year for implementation the soonest possible.
Ends/Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:11
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