Our Desk | Unified exam is a tumor

Julie Zhu

While every student around me complains about how bad it is to be in school and sit exams which are fit for only one kind of student, the city’s four universities are about to adopt a unified exam in the next academic year.

Can it be that horrible? Can this exam really damage Macau’s diversified education system, as some opponents of this kind of exam have said?

To me, Macau’s education is not diversified, but neither is education anywhere else in the world. And I know this is not an original idea. In fact, I grew up hearing that schools are bad.

Macau’s education system will stay the same for at least the next 50 years. I say this because I don’t see these four universities having a good market in Macau.

Children born into a certain social class will go abroad to pursue their degrees. Another class of children will go to mainland schools without taking any exams, which easily solves several problems. However, there will be a group of students enrolling in these four universities, and their numbers are considerable.

Regardless of the examination system we establish for the students, the education system in Macau will stay the same as long as the market is stable.

However, this does not change my personal view that such a system is still bad. Together with the recommendation system, which allows local students to go to the mainland for a university degree, there are two ‘tumors’.

A unified exam consists of one exam for all students with questions drawn from the fields of Chinese, English, Portuguese, and Math. Arguing for the inclusion of English, Portuguese, and Math subjects is not necessary, as these subjects represent either Western culture or the exact sciences.

These subjects will change nothing but the students’ ability to use these particular instruments.

Those who want to enroll in the four local schools will study hard trying to get a higher score. If the exams are written very well, then the students might improve their knowledge in these subjects in a non-practical way if we don’t take math into account.

What really matters, to me personally, is the Chinese subject. When the four universities draft the Chinese exam, it will involve Chinese history, culture and values. These topics which underlie the structure of a single exam, are a lot more influential than history books in the sense that I see language as the real history, not the books themselves.

These universities will share a common value in a single paper. What will that value be? I think everyone will have their own opinions. But it will be a common value.

Let’s establish an example: suppose that ten students need to take the unified exam next year, although only five choose to take it. These five will be trained in values represented in the exam.

As a mainlander all these years my peers and I were educated in certain values and traditions that were taught by older individuals our culture says we must respect. I have felt, and am still feeling, the ingrained values that a unified exam can trigger in me.

If this unified exam trains students to share common values, then Macau will become a place where there will be no tolerance towards something that is different. That is what I consider a tumor.