TNAG-0658-FCO40-807-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1977 — Page 16

Item 5 - "Doubts about the newly installed aptitude test"

A copy of the General Schools Circular No. 101/76 which describes the new allocation system for secondary schools has already been sent to Miss Fookes and the other MPs who visited Hong Kong with her. The main features of the new system will be the allocation of pupils to schools on an area basis and on the results of three internal school assessments. The centrally administered Academic Aptitude Test will monitor and scale schools' internal assessments in accordance with a common standard. It is not a test of attainment, cannot be prepared for and has no syllabus, and it therefore should not affect the school curriculum or exert pressure on primary school pupils. Clearly it is difficult to know in advance how the individual schools will treat the test in practice, and it would be utopian to assume that the present pressures on the pupils will cease entirely, but it is to be hoped that teachers will learn from experience that, unlike examinations, preparation for the new test will produce no appreciable improvement in performance.

2.

With regard to the Education Action Group's strictures on elitism in schools, it is a fact that in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, the standards of primary and secondary schools vary considerably. The Government does not believe that parents should be allowed no freedom of choice as to which schools their children should attend, and accepts that there will continue to be competition for children to enter those schools with the best reputation. It considers however that the new allocation system provides an appropriate compromise solution so that there will be considerably less pressure on the children than previously with the Secondary Schools Entrance Examination, but nevertheless the most intelligent children, regardless of which primary school they attend, will obtain places at the secondary schools of their choice.