Education, a chance or a sentence?

      Education determines a society. This is the truth as education plays a leading role in upgrading the quality of our next generations. In recent Hong Kong, the issue of education system on whether to rely too much on standardized testing has consistently been in the top of the controversial topics among the society. Is it the best mechanism to select Hong Kong’s elites? Would students benefit from or fit in this kind of exam-oriented system?

      Standardized testing is said to be undermining students’ abilities in multi-aspects as it does not encourage some specialized skills such as textiles, cultivating a sense to students that academic results are everything we have to pursue. Failure in public examinations “produces” many “losers” in the society. To some extent, it is a clue of being a member in the underprivileged group which consists of students who are enthusiastic about those “minor subjects” but not interested in the mainstream curriculum. In short, students are confined to the standardized tests which do not satisfy every student’s needs.

      Nevertheless, there are also opinions that standardized tests have its advantages as it is the convention which is adopted for a few decades in Hong Kong. Undoubtedly, thanks to this kind of elite-selection, Hong Kong thus achieves academic excellence, with a university which has ranked top ten in the world and many world-class competitions won by Hongkongers. What’s more, despite the standardized tests, can anyone come up with any mechanism that can be tailored to every student to illustrate their ability in a better way with multi-perspectives? Or even if more “minor” subjects are opened as public examinations, what students face is just, again, standardized testing. It can be concluded that standardized tests are inevitable for determining one’s ability.

      Apart from that, standardized testing is criticized for generating a tense atmosphere for students. This would pose great mental burden to students as they regard public exams as battles. They equip and brace themselves with tremendous effort. They study days and nights in an attempt to gain an upper hand when applying for a university place. The competitive nature of standardized testing may have adverse effect on them, both physically and psychologically, leading to suicide which its increasing trend has raised concerns among the society.

On the other hand, we can re-consider it with a bit different perspective, the standardized tests serve as a platform for students to rival each other. This fosters constructive competition among students, which would be a compelling reason for students to study harder. Competition leads improvement. Hence, academic excellence would be attained.

      Standardized testing does have its advantages and limitations. To my stance, standardized testing’s limitations outweigh its advantages as it has a fatal loophole that standardized tests do not require candidates’ knowledge in a particular field, instead, it emphasizes examination skills. In order to get exhilarating results, students are prone to master examination skills in lieu of a deep understanding on the subjects. That’s why the celebrity tutors who emphasize exam skills are so popular in Hong Kong. Back to our topic, standardized testing does not accurately reflect the students’ understanding and mastering of the subjects to be tested.

      All in all, standardized testing does have its advantages but we cannot overlook its loopholes. There is no the best way of selecting elites but a better way. Education specialists and experts should make an effort to tailor the standardized tests to students.