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Friday, February 9, 1973
EASTER ENTRANCE EXAMINATION PAPERS
To Ease Off Pressure On Pupils
The Education Department has taken steps since 1971 to make the
papers of the Secondary School Entrance Examination progressively easier,
the Deputy Director of Education (Professional), Mr. N.M. Ho, said today.
"This innovation, together with the steady expansion of secondary
education, is expected to ease off the pressure exerted on pupils," Mr. Ho
told the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island West.
He was speaking on some problems concerning primary education mainly
from the parent's point of view.
In the last few years, the Education Department had taken positive
steps to improve the quality of the S.S.E.E.
Most of the questions set were of the objective type, and machine-
marked multiple choice questions had been introduced on a large scale to improve
further the accuracy of the selection procedure for secondary education.
Mr. Ho advised parents whose children were about to sit the S.S.E.E.
to be most careful not to reveal to them any extreme anxiety they might feel
about this critical point in their children's career,
Such over-anxiety, he said, might "actually make them so nervous on
the great day that they fail to do themselves justice."
On special coaching for the entrance examination, Mr. Ho cautioned
parents that the danger again was over-pressure, with the result that their
children did not have adequate time for fresh air, exercise and sleep.
/Dealing