The recent divisive brouhaha about the need for continuing to run the Territory-wide System Assessment in schools in Hong Kong prompts us to consider more deeply the whole controversial world of educational assessment methods.

It is sometimes said that education is too important a subject to be left only to teachers! Indeed, most teachers spend their entire working lives in schools, with few of them venturing outside to undertake any other types of work. Their only break from the limiting confines of school will be at the teacher training college they attend after leaving school. Then, after qualifying, they will go directly back to school to teach. Such a limited world view does little to enable the schoolteachers to judge realistically the true value of a school — or university — education, other than by bare examination results.

There is a huge and profitable sideline business here in Hong Kong of fee-paying after-school tutorial colleges and private tutors, which generally cram their young pupils in intensive preparation for public examinations. Where such tuition includes tips on exam technique, it puts such pupils at an unfair advantage over other exam candidates who may not have been similarly crammed. Such methods must also skew the accuracy of the exam results — because a “crammed” student may in fact be no more knowledgeable than an “uncrammed” student in the same subject, but will likely gain higher marks in the test, simply because he or she knows how best to address the assessment itself (i.e. with an enhanced exam technique). What, then, is the accuracy or value of such tests?

That raises the wider question of the relevance of school exams. All those of us who have left school will remember the challenge of trying to remember reams of facts, figures, names, dates and so on, upon which we were to be tested in a school exam. We will also very likely have forgotten most of this information soon afterward.

Certainly, only a very limited part of what is imparted at school is retained in the adult memory. School exams seek to assess knowledge, but where that “knowledge” is retained for such a very limited period, is the testing system itself anything more than an irrelevant charade? In this age, when every youngster’s hand is seldom long bereft of a smartphone, access to up-to-date knowledge is available, via Google and the like, instantly — meaning there is less need to remember many facts or figures.

True enough, some vital things are taught in school, such as how to read and write. Developing these skills speaks largely about what a pupil can do (admittedly with knowledge of spelling, grammar, vocabulary and so on also coming into the picture). Reading and writing are lifelong skills, imparted at a tender age. But developing the skill of writing an essay — a common focus in schools — is something valued highly by schoolteachers but almost completely irrelevant to any writing needs that the youngster may have after leaving full-time education. How many of us have ever needed to write an essay, after graduating? How to write an impressive job application would be a much more valuable skill to learn for use in later life.

The burdensome setting of piles of school homework every day results in the distressing sight of even primary school-age children tottering home with bulging backpacks full of books, and the equally distressing absence of many children playing in the city’s parks and playgrounds after school, because they are too busy writing their many homework tasks at home.

The value of a university education extends vastly beyond what is imparted in university lecture halls and tutorials. University days are often said to be the happiest period in life. The freshman is exposed at university to all sorts of new experiences and influences; to things which will enable him or her to develop personal qualities, hopefully to stand him in good stead through the rest of his life. And here we are talking about practical and commonsense personal attributes such as time management, self-discipline, self-motivation and the mundane yet vital ability to manage one’s own budget.

The highlights and main benefits of university education should be the intellectual stimulation of studying one’s chosen (major) subject; the pleasures and discipline of academic research, much of which, incidentally, is not exam-oriented; and the development of interpersonal skills that comes with such activities.

Additionally, motivating, leading, public speaking, organising, delegating, social and influencing skills can all be built up by helping with the running of student societies, sports teams and the like. Such “people skills” will be highly valued in the workplace later, but are for the most part not assessed or graded.

By Paul Surtees
(China Daily/Asia News Network)

The writer is a Hong Kong-based commentator and has worked for many years with students as a university lecturer and with young people in his volunteer service with various nongovernmental organizations. — Ed.