A few weeks ago a man told me he was worried about his
daughter in primary two.
He said she was spending too much time doing homework. He was worried she had no
time for anything else but study.
Such is Hong Kong. I once visited a home in Tung Chung where a primary one boy was forcibly kept awake each night until 11pm, "studying". In most countries such treatment of young children would be unthinkable.
Young children who stay up late studying are sleepy
during class the next day.
They lose interest in study if pushed too hard. By the time they reach
upper primary they have had enough of being study slaves.
A report some years ago said that Chinese children need three times as much time to learn Chinese than children in English speaking countries need to learn English. One of the main reasons of course is the sheer number and complexity of Chinese characters.
Being born in HK means you have to learn four languages in primary school: written Chinese, spoken Cantonese, spoken Putonghua, and English.
After three years of kindergarten, six years of primary, and three or more years of secondary, most HK students have trouble speaking English. This is because for nine or more years they have not been learning how to speak English. What they have been doing is learning how to pass written English exams.
A simple solution: make the oral content of English exams worth 80% of the exam total. Removing time wasted learning poorly understood written exam English will lighten the burden of HK students.....and help them speak good English!