Letter to the Editor – Stressful Examination
Dear Editor
Recently, two surveys were conducted by Hong Kong Youth Association and it is found that more and more students felt stressed when facing the public examination. I would like to express my views on this pressing issue. I definitely agree that the public examination is too stressful.
First and foremost, there is only one examination to determine whether the students can get into a university. The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) is of utmost importance to all Secondary 6 students who strike hard to achieve pleasing results as to get into their dream university and faulty. If they can get high grades in HKDSE, they can make their dream come true and study their favourite programme. Students feel so stressed that they cannot sleep well at night because of the tense competition for limited university places. Nowadays having a degree is considered to be the basic job requirement. If one cannot get into a university, he/she may be labelled as a loser. Therefore, it is believed that the higher education level you have, the higher social status you can achieve in the society. So, all students have no choice but to work extremely hard, hoping their hard work will be rewarding. The packed studying schedule make them have no time for other relaxing activities and lead a leisure life.
The second reason is that Hong Kong students are anxious that they cannot fulfill their parents’ expectation. Most of the Hong Kong parents are ‘Monster Parent’ whose ultimate aim is to have their children receive the best education, achieve outstanding qualification and pursuit a right career to a bright future. To help their children stand out from the crowd, they arrange a series of courses and activities for their children to well prepare them to be more competent and seek a good job. Their schedule is too packed that they feel stressed and frustrated. Some even feel stressed whenever they cannot get good marks in their studies. In the recent years, the number of juvenile suicidal cases related to public examinations keeps rising rapidly. Some of the self-slayers lose self-esteem and feel hopeless in their and decide to take their own life.
Also, students are unable to cope with tons of homework or assignments. In order to get high marks in the examinations, they rush to tutorial centres to acquire more examination skills and tips. After 6 – 8 hours learning at school, they need to spend another 2 – 3 hours in tutorial classes. It is undoubtedly a hard life for every student. The excessive learning not only destroy students’ learning motivation but also make them exhausted. However, there are still some students who cannot attain good levels in the examination. If so, some might collapse, feel hopeless and lose self- confidence.
Lastly, Hong Kong’s education is ‘unhealthy’ and too ‘examination-oriented’. Students have to forced to ‘learn’ as much as they can instead of exploring their interests and learn at their own pace. Learning is not a mark only. Learning is not confined in a classroom. Experiential learning is more practical and suitable for students to take an action to learn what they are interested in. If not, loads of tutorials and homework are useless and students might not learn effectively and efficiently. This might create more losers in the education. I have to restate that many students are under stress and more support should be given to help them cope with the DSE properly.
Yours faithfully
A. Wong