Take the noose off your ambition
Controversy continues to swirl in the aftermath of a study which failed to find answers to the problem of student suicides, while some educators say a weakness in students is part of the cause. Carmen Ho report.
Aclamor has arisen among education professionals over what many consider the failure of a government-supported study, to identify the key causes of student suicide and identify actionable solutions.
The Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides published its final report in early November, summarizing broad areas of discussion, such as “psychological concerns”, “relationship problems”, and “adjustment difficulties”. It then went on over many pages to admonish schools to identify atrisk students.
The Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union says the 150 page report offers no new insight, is short on practical solutions to the root problems and lacks recommendations for funding support.
Some demand that education be reformed, to relieve students of pressure. Others deny any direct link between the tragedies and pressure on students.
In the previous three years, 71 students committed suicide.
Although government policy is related, most important is the competitive culture in Hong Kong and people’s mindset regarding education. The whole society is problematic when it comes to the reasons for student pressures, said Ce Ho, a youth counselor in Hong Kong with more than a decade of experience working with primary and secondary school students.
“There is school and then there is tutoring and then there is homework. Students really have no time for relaxation and play from the moment they wake up to bedtime. They are always tired and busy. This has become the routine even for young kids, so they don’t even know how to relax anymore,” said Ho.
“Earlier this year, the government granted each public primary and secondary school HK$5,000 as a response to the increasing number of suicide cases, but the money came with no suicide prevention strategy, guidance or follow-up. “What can you do with HK$5,000? We don’t know what to do with it,” she said.
Price of good grades
The primary school system presents kids with a full day of classes from 8 am to 3 pm, then hordes of youngsters can be seen flocking to the city’s many tutorial centers, which at the same time are big money makers.
Grades are what matters ultimately. The future depends on getting into a good school, then a good university. If almost everyone pushes their children to tutorial classes, the children who don’t go are considered at a disadvantage.
Josie Tang, a secondary school teacher in Hong Kong who is mother of a teenage son, complained that students are treated like “machines”, pressed repeatedly to write mock exam papers.
“This is detrimental to real learning, as absorbing information takes time but they don’t have time for that. Doing more drilling doesn’t necessarily mean you learn more,” said Tang. “I think the mindset needs to change right now. Students think their self-worth and success as a person is defined entirely by their grades, because parents focus only on that. Education here is not really about learning or developing interests. It’s about exams.”
Ho said that in recent years she has seen an increase in warning signs of mental health problems in children, including eating disorders and obsessive–compulsive disorders like constant hand washing. She believes academic stress is a major reason behind this worrisome trend.
Children are not aware of the problems and parents don’t think these things will happen to their children. It’s a vicious cycle. When tragedy happens, parents blame the government, and the government blames the schools and the parents. They all have problems but nobody really reflects on how to do their own part better, said Ho.
Coping with stress
Some educators say students who crumble under pressure are responsible.
“It is a very complicated problem with many factors. The greater environment is a problem but students’ strength and resilience is also a problem,” Ko Ka-yee, president of the Hong Kong Academy of School Managers and vice-president of the Hong Kong Teachers’ Association, told China Daily.
“While we are always sad about the loss of life, especially when it is a young person, should we change a whole system because of it? Instead, I think we should encourage students, teach them that there will always be many pressures and obstacles in life and that they need to work hard to achieve their goals, and they should get help when needed,” he added.
Even so, it is not easy for students to get help for mental health issues in Hong Kong. Some schools have only one counselor assigned to care for over 1,000 students, and teachers are often so overloaded with administrative work, they do not have time to understand and help individual students, said Dung Yi-ping, principal of CCC Chuen Yuen Second Primary School in Kwai Chung.
“Many social workers are also not that experienced; some may be fresh graduates and already expected to handle all students by themselves,” said Dung.
Critics of the student suicide report have voiced the need for more social workers, psychologists and teachers, a consideration the report largely dismissed. .
“Our focus is not on adding extra manpower, but how to do better with our current resources,” said Michelle Wong Yau Wai-ching , deputy secretary for education and vice chairman of the Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides.
Unrealistic expectations
A major problem that remains largely unaddressed is that Hong Kong’s education system is elitist, according to Fung Wai-wah, president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union.
“Competitiveness is at all levels of Hong Kong’s education system starting from kindergarten, going all the way up to university. It’s a survivalist framework, survival of the fittest, and as to how you define ‘fittest’, a lot of it comes down to family expectations,” said Hugo Horta, assistant professor in the Division of Policy, Administration and Social Sciences Education at the University of Hong Kong. Horta teaches critical issues in educational reform.
Dung agrees that family expectations are a root source of student pressure.
“Parent education is very important. What I see are parents increasingly dumping their responsibilities on schools, expecting teachers to do the parents’ part of educating their children. But do schools have the capacity to fulfill so many roles? It is unrealistic. Education doesn’t end at the end of the school day; it’s also important for parents to spend meaningful time with their children,” she said. “Parents need to be educated about this.”
But the greater environment has made it hard for parents to spend quality time with their children, said Dung. “The government needs to address work-life balance. Working hours need to be adjusted and more flexible, with parents able to take time off for their children when needed. If we want to solve the education problem, many aspects of the society have to change.”
“The way we treat teachers is also a problem,” said Ko. “We give them no time and resources for further development.”
Most of the government’s changes to the education system in the past years have been tweaks in subject requirements and examinations. The changes have little effect on the overall system but their frequency leads to more confusion and pressure for students, according to critics. One example is the switch from A-level exams to the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams, and the addition of school-based assessments which may be scaled back next year due to regulatory issues. Another possible change being discussed is that liberal studies may be turned into an elective instead of a core subject.
“The system keeps changing so students have to adapt quickly. They are afraid that if they don’t keep up with the changes they will fail. I think the foundation of Hong Kong’s education is not strong enough yet; it is still at a ‘trial and error’ stage,” said Tang. “I would also be very stressed if I were a student now.”
“Students here are also expected to be good at everything. The system requires you to be well-rounded,” she added.
Ko agrees on this point. “The expectations and standards for being well-rounded are actually getting higher. But everyone’s ability and talents are different. We need to enhance education on life values. Instead of focusing on comparisons, parents should encourage children to develop interests. There are many paths to success,” he said.
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