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The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) today (October 27) received from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) the 2006 Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) results and encouraged schools to make better use of the results for further enhancement of learning and teaching effectiveness.
The Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Chris Wardlaw, said he was pleased to see continuous improvement in Primary Three (P3) and Primary Six (P6) students’ performance in all three subjects this year compared to last year. "This reflects the continued efforts of schools and we urge them to keep up the momentum," Mr Wardlaw said.
"This is the first year Secondary Three (S3) students participated in the TSA. Education practitioners widely recognise that the achievement gaps between high and low performing students will widen when they advance to higher key learning stage. This trend corresponds with the experience in other countries and cities which have carried out similar system assessments.
"The TSA brings into focus the need to assist those students who are in danger of falling further behind in their learning."
Mr Wardlaw said that EMB would study the assessment results in detail, and enhance the training and other learning and teaching support for schools where needed so as to address areas of weakness in students' learning identified in the assessment.
"TSA results can provide both schools and the Government with meaningful and measurable data on effectiveness of learning and teaching. We have conducted seminars and workshops to initiate schools and teachers into ways of improvement and enhancement. We expect teachers and school management to progress further in reinforcing the improved performance at all three key learning stages."
Like previous years, EMB expects that the assessment data be used only for school improvement purposes. Stakeholders, including school management, have to strictly follow the protocol for using the data to avoid unnecessary and unhealthy inter-school comparisons. The data cannot be used for promotional purposes.
The TSA was introduced to P3 in 2004 and was extended to P6 in 2005 and S3 in 2006. The results serve to inform the community of the overall performance of students in Hong Kong against the professionally defined basic competency standards in the Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics subjects.
It is important to obtain sufficient data points for each key learning stage to establish a firm baseline of students' performance standards. By the time the assessment is fully developed it will provide a solid baseline of standards for the community and the school sector to evaluate students' progress in the three subjects.
For details of the TSA and this year's results, please refer to HKEAA's website: www.hkeaa.edu.hk.
Ends/Friday, October 27, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:46
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