5B Chan Ho Yeung (8)
A Letter to the Editor—Is public examination too stressful for students in Hong Kong?
Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my opinion on whether the public examination is too stressful. Nowadays, many students lose their interest in learning. I am convinced that the current examination system is stressful. I have three reasons to support my views.
First, the public examination is too stressful because it determines whether one can get admission to universities. The public examination results represent a student’s success or failure, so students need to get good marks in DSE ( Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination). When they get into S4, they have quizzes, tests and examinations every day. So they need to go to tutorial centres and do revision till midnight so as to get good results in the examination. Hence, students do not have time to play. It will lead to an unbalanced life. So students will feel stressed by the examination.
Second, the public examination become more stressful when parents place high expectations on their children. Hong Kong parents put too much emphasis on their children’s exam results. Students need to do well in DSE because they need to meet the expectations of parents. Parents want their children to get good resulst in DSE, and parents will make their children do a lot of past papers to improve examination results and do not let them play games to relax. So students will feel pressured and depressed.
Third, the public examination makes teaching and learning extremely exam-oriented, which makes students feel bored and stressed. Their schools give them a lot of homework, quizzes, tests and examination. Students need to stay after school for exam practice. After school, they need to go to tutorial centres or self-study rooms to review the monotonous materials. Students do the same thing every day. As a result, students will lose their interest in learning and lose self-motivation.
In short, the public examination is too stressful since there are limited places in local universities, many parents place high expectation on their children and the education system is exam-oriented. Parents, schools and the government should be responsible for this. Hong Kong parents should put less emphasis on their children’s exam results and schools should stop giving too much homework and too many examination drillings to students. Simultaneouly, the government should provide more places in local universities in the long run .
Yours faithfully
A. Wong