HKEAA finds 38 per cent of candidates possibly ‘misled’ into answering Japan did ‘more good than harm’ to China in scrapped history exam question
- The exam authority’s secretary general So Kwok-sang says the question’s original intentions had not been met
- Some 57 per cent of students said Japan ‘did more harm than good’, while nearly 5 per cent did not take a stance
Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) secretary general So Kwok-sang on Monday told a Legislative Coucil education-panel special meeting that 57 per cent of candidates said Japan did “more harm than good” to China, while nearly 5 per cent did not take a stance.
“Therefore, the HKEAA council believed that [up to 38 per cent of the] candidates might have been misled to reach a biased conclusion,” he said.
More than 5,200 students who sat for the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) history exam on May 14 were asked whether they agreed Japan “did more good than harm to China” between 1900 and 1945, and were told to rely on two excerpts of reading material and their own knowledge to answer.
So said the proportion of candidates who answered that Japan “did more good than harm” to China was “unexpected” by those who helped draft the exam paper.
“As candidates were required to use their own knowledge to answer the question, they were also expected to be able to mention the mass casualties caused during Japan’s occupation of China between the 1930s and 1940s,” he said.
“But according to our initial screening of answers, it seemed that the question’s original intentions had not [been met].”
