The Education Bureau announced on Tuesday (23rd) that due to the structural decline in the secondary school age population, the Wong Tai Sin District of the Longxiang Government Secondary School Degree Office has more places left. After careful consideration of various factors, including education policy, supply and demand of places, After the overall development needs of government schools and the use of government resources, it was decided to merge Long Cheung Government High School and Sham Shui Po Kowloon Technical School from the 2022/23 school year.
In fact, the government has already announced the relevant policies earlier, saying that it hopes to set an example for school-running organizations. At the same time, the bureau pointed out that the current merger of schools can provide students with a more suitable learning environment.
The bureau’s determination to improve the learning environment for students is worthy of support. At the same time, it must also learn from the lessons of children who have committed suicide after the beginning of school. The Hong Kong University Hong Kong Jockey Club Suicide Prevention Research Center has previously released Hong Kong suicide data. In 2020, Hong Kong youths Suicide is on the rise. When the problems faced by young people involve different areas, including family, interpersonal relationship, study pressure, even emotional distress or mental health problems, the bureau needs to carefully examine the consequences of forcing students to transfer schools.
The Child Death Case Review Committee issued its fifth report. The number of child suicide cases during the three-year period has more than doubled compared with the previous three-year review period.
(Photo by Zhong Yan)
Support measures should take care of needs
It coincided that the Child Death Case Review Committee issued its fifth report on Tuesday (23rd), stating that in the three years from 2016 to 2018, the age group with the highest number of suicide cases was 15 to 17, and more than 70% of children suicide were due to academic pressure.
This deserves the bureau's attention when planning secondary education, so as to cater for the needs of school children in a more comprehensive manner.
For example, in the process of killing schools, the bureau may consider appointing teachers from two schools to reduce the teacher-student ratio.
As always, the fewer students that each teacher needs to take care of, the more they can focus on the needs of the students and gain insight into whether students are adapting to the transition process smoothly.
Just as Yan Zhi, chairman of the Hong Kong Island Eastern District Secondary School Principals Association, said in a radio program, this can be seen as an opportunity to implement small-class teaching in secondary schools. Taking advantage of the trend, we can strengthen the care of students and special learning needs, and further protect school children and avoid a large number of teacher unemployment.
Form 3 student Ho was sentimental about the school being "killed". He was worried that he would not be able to adapt to the new school environment and learning progress. He was also worried that he might encounter bullying. It would take time to think and discuss with his family whether to transfer to Jiugong.
(Photo by Deng Yinglin)
Challenges beyond learning need to be addressed
In addition to studying, students transferring to another school have to re-adjust to the new environment. Some Secondary Three students bluntly expressed their worries about being bullied or failing to keep up with their progress when interviewed by the media.
Sudden changes can easily put pressure on school children, and the bureau needs to provide more non-academic support.
The bureau stated that starting from this school year, Kowloon Technical School and Longxiang Government Secondary School will strengthen cooperation to organize different types of teacher-student exchange activities, joint school courses and competitions. These measures are believed to help increase student exchanges between the two schools.
At the same time, the bureau may also consider requesting the school to hire more school-based social workers to deal with the potential increase in student emotional problems.
According to the latest data from the Census and Statistics Department, there will be as many as 75,300 net emigrations from mid-2020 to mid-2021. It can be expected that the impact of the immigration wave and the continued decline in the population of school-age children will cause more schools to face the fate of killing schools.
The government must deal with the resulting problems, such as the special learning needs of school children, the learning differences of students under the New Senior Secondary Curriculum, and even adapting to the new school building, and put forward a more comprehensive plan to solve the resulting problems.
School children suspect that all walks of life are responsible for the government taking the lead in killing small classes in official schools.
Teacher unemployment is approaching?
