News of the day 2
From South China Morning Post, Education Section
By Katherine Forestier, Education Editor
Is it all just about making the grade?
Schools out! For over a month now, teenagers have been whiling away afternoons at beach parties, in swimming pools and catching up with movies, even though May is not yet over.
The term still has six weeks to run but many students will need to return to school only to sit their dreaded exams.
Officially those taking HKCEEs, British GCSEs and A-levels (local or UK) are on study leave. But with sometimes as much as two weeks between exams, they have plenty of time to kick up their heels and relax.
Study leave is seen as the best way for students to prepare for exams. And to a large extent this is true. For GCSE students gone are the days of February and March when they struggled through the night to complete multiple coursework assignments.
The pace is now more leisurely, allowing a good mix of study and relaxation, except for those less disciplined who might be taking the relaxation too far.
Some teachers organise special revision sessions for students who need extra help. But generally, teenagers in these years are not expected to venture back to school. And once exams finish - this week for HKCEE students and even earlier for those sitting local A-levels - they can forget school altogether until they get their results.
For English Schools Foundation secondary schools, study leave means that for much of the summer term three out of seven forms will be out of school, although those taking AS-levels will return to start their A2 courses. What joy this must be for teachers!
But parents, who still have to pay school fees for May and June while their children work at home, and play, might wonder if they are getting value for money - especially when a bill for overseas exams exceeding $5000 drops through their letterboxes.
And what about when the exams are finished and there are several weeks of term still to go? If schooling is more than about passing exams, surely this is an opportunity to engage students in other activities.
Yew Chung International School, which offers GCSEs and the IB Diploma, follows the study-leave pattern. But it schedules its "world classroom" programme in the weeks after exams, with students broadening their horizons in the mainland and further afield, as well as Hong Kong.
Teachers in other schools say they are too busy writing reports or planning next year's work to run new activities for these students.
Why not, then, encourage them to organise sports, arts and community service activities themselves, with minimal supervision?
Or is it really the case that all that counts, at the end of the school year, are the exam grades?
On this front, both local and ESF schools may be guilty.
Read previous news: 1.
By Katherine Forestier, Education Editor
Is it all just about making the grade?
Schools out! For over a month now, teenagers have been whiling away afternoons at beach parties, in swimming pools and catching up with movies, even though May is not yet over.
The term still has six weeks to run but many students will need to return to school only to sit their dreaded exams.
Officially those taking HKCEEs, British GCSEs and A-levels (local or UK) are on study leave. But with sometimes as much as two weeks between exams, they have plenty of time to kick up their heels and relax.
Study leave is seen as the best way for students to prepare for exams. And to a large extent this is true. For GCSE students gone are the days of February and March when they struggled through the night to complete multiple coursework assignments.
The pace is now more leisurely, allowing a good mix of study and relaxation, except for those less disciplined who might be taking the relaxation too far.
Some teachers organise special revision sessions for students who need extra help. But generally, teenagers in these years are not expected to venture back to school. And once exams finish - this week for HKCEE students and even earlier for those sitting local A-levels - they can forget school altogether until they get their results.
For English Schools Foundation secondary schools, study leave means that for much of the summer term three out of seven forms will be out of school, although those taking AS-levels will return to start their A2 courses. What joy this must be for teachers!
But parents, who still have to pay school fees for May and June while their children work at home, and play, might wonder if they are getting value for money - especially when a bill for overseas exams exceeding $5000 drops through their letterboxes.
And what about when the exams are finished and there are several weeks of term still to go? If schooling is more than about passing exams, surely this is an opportunity to engage students in other activities.
Yew Chung International School, which offers GCSEs and the IB Diploma, follows the study-leave pattern. But it schedules its "world classroom" programme in the weeks after exams, with students broadening their horizons in the mainland and further afield, as well as Hong Kong.
Teachers in other schools say they are too busy writing reports or planning next year's work to run new activities for these students.
Why not, then, encourage them to organise sports, arts and community service activities themselves, with minimal supervision?
Or is it really the case that all that counts, at the end of the school year, are the exam grades?
On this front, both local and ESF schools may be guilty.
Read previous news: 1.
posted by Eau at 1:46 pm
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