The return to the 3-3-4 education system in Hong Kong is an improvement on the previous system

but: The new system will cause many problems for teachers
- because: the new system will add an enormous workload to teachers who are already overloaded
  - but: this is not the problem of the system itself
    - because: such hard times are in fact the necessary result of any restructuring
  - because: consultations from students increase
    - because: students will face many new problems with the new system
  - because: reorganization of teaching schedules and re-making of teaching syllabus are necessary in adopting a new education system
- because: current teachers may lose their jobs
  - because: apart from Chinese, English, Maths and General Education, other subjects are no longer taken as core subjects
but: there is no good reason for a restructuring of the existing education system in Hong Kong
- because: Hong Kong education system has a good reputation internationally
  - because: the qualifications gained under the existing system are acknowledged worldwide
- but: 3-3-4 is a global education trend
  - because: the USA,China and most countries in Europe have implemented the 3-3-4 system for a long time
    - but: England does not have a 3-3-4 system, but has a highly-regarded educational system
but: four years at university is longer, so students will have to pay more fees
but: the current system is not broken, and does not need to be changed
but: the education reform is unfair to mentally disabled students (Tong (2006) )
- because: the new system reduces the chance of mentally disabled students receiving adequate basic education in secondary education (Tong (2006) )
but: unfair to students who are not good at maths
- because: there will be an extra year of maths, filled with higher level material, which will cause more students to fail
because: the new system is beneficial to students
- but: there will be an increase of student's financial burden under the new system
  - but: the government will provide grants and loans
    - Problem: grants and loans are not a sustainable manner in solving the problem, since the budget reserve is vary from time to time
  - because: secondary school fee will be increased from an average of HKD6000 to HKD7200, university school fee will be increase from HKD42100 to around HKD50000, per year
- because: Beneficial to students
- because: every student under the new system will enjoy at least one year of matriculate education
- because: four years of tertiary education allows students to have more time to specialize in the subject matter they are interested in
  - but: not all subjects need four years tertiary education
- because: the newly inserted General Education into secondary education under the new system is an improvement of the old syllabus
  - because: students will become more critical and open-minded
    - because: students will be educated with wide range of topics which are closely related to the external world they are living in, such as political and cultural issues
      - but: General Education will lead to a decline in the quality of students and education
        because: in order to increase student's chance in entering university where vacancies are limited, schools may only ask students to do assessment easy to get high marks
        Problem: Yes, it is possible, but there is no guarantee of "High Score" with easier questions, since it tests your critical thinking not standard answers.
        because: students will lose focus of their study
        because: General Education will indeed cause many problems to teaching and learning (Sing Tao Daily (2006) )
        because: it is difficult to prepare the teaching materials
        because: the terms General Education and Liberal Studies are so vague that they can be seen as covering any issue
        because: generality comes at the price of speciality
    - because: students will be educated with respect to the ideal of independent thinking
      - Effect: However, biased teaching and learning material will mislead students' mindset.
  - but: assessment of performance in General Education, which will be partly done by the school themselves, which is unfair to students (Sing Pao (2006) )
    - but: teachers' assessment scheme has long been used for AL subjects like Chemistry and Biology and CE subjects like fine arts
    - because: assessment of performance in General Education is likely to be subjective and personal
  - because: it is an improvement to the old way of examination-oriented thinking which has been under severe criticism for a long time
    - because: the ultimate goal of general education is a healthy body and a healthy mind, not examination results
      - but: the ultimate goal of general education is a good job, and these are competitive, and based a lot on exam results
      - but: it is self-defeating for General Education to be included as a core subject of the public examination under the new system
- because: the new system is more beneficial to the all-round development of students
  - because: under the new system, the students will have more free time to engage in extra-curricular activities (Sing Tao Daily (2006) )
    - but: unless extra-curricular activities are taken into account in the university entrance requrements, students will ignore them and concentrate on their studies
    - because: students are only asked to enrol in six subjects under the new system
- because: the students are granted more freedom and flexibility under the new system
  - because: the students will be allow to make their own combinations of subjects ranging from sciences, arts and business according to their own interests
    - but: unpopular but traditional subjects will be eventually eliminated because of not enough enrollment
      - but: this only means a progressive evolution of the syllabus of schooling
  - because: the student will feel less pressure in their secondary school life
    - but: the student in fact feel more pressure under the new system
      - because: more candidates will compete for the university vacancies under the new system
        because: with two examinations in the previous system, unqualified students were first filtered out at HKCEE level
      - because: in replacing two public examinations with one, this single examination matters much more to themselves and their future
        because: two separate examinations give the student a more thorough assessment
        because: under the previous system, those who fail in the first examination (HKCEE) simply won't have the chance to go for the second (HKAL)
    - because: they only have to go for one public examination instead of two as requested in the previous system

Tong, Nora. (2006, November 25). "Mentally disabled students 'bullied' by EMB". South China Morning Post