The Examinations & Assessment Authority will form online marking centres next year to scan examination scripts and to pilot onscreen and central marking of selected subjects in 2007. It is a first step in automating examination and eliminating manual processes.

Speaking in a Legislative Council meeting today, Examinations & Assessment Authority Council Chairman Irving Koo said current systems for administering examinations are antiquated, heavily reliant on manual processes and outdated computer systems.

Processes such as the manual handling and marking of scripts and the reliance on markers to correctly add up marks, use the right score sheets and transfer scores correctly to score sheets, result in unacceptable incidents of missing scripts and technical or data preparation errors, he said.

Full automation

The authority will improve the systems, and in the longer term to modernise its IT infrastructure and develop a fully automated and integrated examination system.

Mr Koo said a new IT committee will be formed to advise on and monitor matters related to the authority's IT infrastructure and systems.

Apart from the online marking centres, other improvement measures are to modernise the IT infrastructure and systems, and develop new computer systems for the processing of examination results.

A new quality assurance unit will also be formed to review the marking process to avoid mistakes.