Students fear repeat of history over exam questions

Secondary school students sitting a DSE history exam on Thursday told RTHK they would avoid any elective questions on China, just in case there’s a repeat of the controversy that erupted last year.

A question on the paper in 2020 – which asked whether Japan did more good than harm to China from 1900 to 1945 – was scrapped after the exam took place.

“It happened once and can happen again, so I need to be careful,” said an exam student surnamed Po.

“Obviously such questions are dangerous… I will choose questions on other topics like European or Japanese history instead.”

Another student, meanwhile, said she had only studied Chinese history briefly as she did not expect questions on this to come up after what happened last year.

“I don’t think the [exams] authority is that brave to set such questions this year.”

But a student surnamed Sit said he would not avoid any sensitive questions, even though his teacher had told him to.

Sit said he would choose any questions he could answer and he doesn’t think students need to be politically correct in exams.