Regina Ip claims biased Hong Kong teachers are giving anti-government students high marks

Regina Ip, a high-profile lawmaker and chairman of the New People’s Party, claims that an “experienced teacher” has complained that some students who got a Level 5 (meaning “excellent”) result for the much-contended Liberal Studies subject did not actually show the requisite critical thinking.

In fact, Ip says that their results were marked by teachers who sympathised with these students’ anti-government (read: pro-democracy) stances in their schoolwork. 

Ip also complains that the Education Bureau’s older Chinese translation of the term “critical thinking” encourages students to be critical of others’ views. Her concern lies in the fact that the translation means “criticising thinking” in the most literal sense… in the same manner that the English term “critical thinking” could be interpreted that way. 

The bureau’s newer Chinese translation, which translates to “discerning thinking”, has not yet been fully rolled out across the system. Ip seems to be worried that a subject name’s semantics may be turning an entire generation of students into people that are perhaps too critical of others (read: the government). 

Ip, citing a HKU philosophy professor, says that critical thinking should not be interpreted as “being argumentative or being critical of other people”, but that it in fact should mean “analysing a subject in a comprehensive manner”.

Eddie Ng, the secretary for education, said that the marking process follows rigorous procedures, including having two markers for each exam. 

He added that Liberal Studies exams are not marked by the students’ political stances, but by the quality and organisation of their arguments, and thus neither markers’ nor students’ political affiliations should affect the final result.

Finally, in response to Ip’s qualms about the translation, Ng says that the original term is widely used all over the mainland, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong.

But due to public misconceptions that the term means “criticising thinking” (see: Regina Ip), the Education Bureau will revise the name of the subject to “discerning (critical) thinking skills”, with no change whatsoever to the content of the course. 

Photo: Brian Hillegas via Flickr

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