John Tsang Chun-wah, TEDxTongChongSt 2019 speaker

The education system is already outdated and exams are no longer necessary as technology can enable teachers to keep track of students’ learning progress to the minute.

Education technology, which applies mobile tech, virtual reality and artificial intelligence to empower learning, should be adopted in Hong Kong rather than just focusing on e-learning and STEM lessons. What the government needs to do is to change the entire system. The schools have a lot of funding but they do not know how to use it effectively.

I always believed tests were unnecessary. For example, when I did my SAT exam, I was really good at doing multiple-choice questions even though I was not very knowledgeable. We needed public examinations in the past because we had limited school places. However, now we even question whether we need university because many companies no longer take candidates’ degrees into account.

The global coronavirus pandemic has also created the momentum for educators to become more used to remote teaching, but they should not limit it to simply putting physical classes online but think of how to cultivate students’ interest using technology.

The government can support some education technology start-ups so that they could carry out projects in local schools to facilitate students’ learning. Students could be divided based on their learning objectives and progress instead of age.

(John Tsang Chun-wah is the Founder of Esperanza, a Hong Kong-based non-profit organisation focusing on education and technology. Mr. Tsang was a senior civil servant in various high-level positions, including Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Government . He was one of the TEDxTongChongSt 2019 speakers. The blog was based on an South China Morning Post interview with Mr. Tsang in October 2021)