A task force set up by the Education Bureau has completed an investigation of the question setting for the 2020 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination history paper.

Arising from a problematic question in the history paper, the bureau set up the task force in June to understand the examination question setting, moderation and approval mechanism, the compliance of the question paper's development process with the mechanism as well as to make recommendations for improvement.

Members of the task force include officers from the bureau, representatives from the Hong Kong Examinations & Assessment Authority (HKEAA), and former HKEAA Council members.

The bureau said, after careful review, the task force noted that the HKEAA had put in place certain quality assurance measures for all stages of the question paper development and had provided to its staff members a comprehensive set of internal rules and regulations.

Those measures serve to ensure that the Moderation Committee for each subject will draw on the collective responsibility from its members in the question paper development process, and safeguard against having the process dominated by one or a few individuals.

Noting that the effective implementation of the quality assurance measures requires all personnel concerned to carry out their designated duties appropriately under strict compliance with relevant rules and regulations, the bureau said the task force observed that among the causes of the incident, an HKEAA officer did not comply with some of the HKEAA rules and regulations, and did not adhere to the quality assurance measures in the development of the question papers.

There were also inadequacies in the existing HKEAA quality assurance measures that might have hampered the monitoring of the question paper development process.

The task force found that at different stages of the question paper development process including pre-setting, moderation, checking and proofreading, the HKEAA officer concerned did not strictly comply with the HKEAA rules and regulations.

For example, only parts of the draft questions and materials discussed in the pre-setting stage were provided to the Moderation Committee for information or discussion, the set of guidelines on handling sensitive issues was not provided to the committee nor were members reminded to observe such guidelines, and comments received in the checking and proofreading stage were not provided to the committee or the Chief Examiner for information and consideration.

This hampered the effective implementation of the principle of collective responsibility of the committee in the question paper development process, and may result in problems not being detected early and addressed in time, the task force added.

The task force recommended the HKEAA to enhance the monitoring of compliance with quality assurance measures through strengthening the involvement of senior HKEAA staff members, provide all committee members with information on all meetings, including pre-setting and moderation meetings, as well as all feedback received at different stages of the question paper development process to prevent similar incidents from arising again, thereby ensuring the sustained quality of the HKDSE Examination and questions.

The findings and recommendations were presented to the HKEAA Council in a meeting this evening.

The bureau said it will continue to work closely with the HKEAA to put in place measures to implement the recommendations with a view to ensuring the close alignment between the curriculum and assessment of the HKDSE Examination, as well as upholding the high recognition of the HKEAA as a professional assessment organisation.