Hong Kong has set off a wave of immigration, with students dropping out of school and teachers leaving their jobs at the same time.
The Hong Kong Secondary School Principals Association and the Chinese University of Hong Kong conducted a survey on student drop-outs and teacher turnover in Hong Kong. The number of drop-outs in the last school year rose sharply to 4,460 year-on-year. About 60 of them were due to departure from Hong Kong.
The number of dropouts has risen by 60% compared with the previous two school years. It is estimated that an average of 32 dropouts per secondary school.
The situation of teacher turnover is also severe. The number of teachers who left their jobs last school year reached 987, with an average of 7.1 teachers leaving each school, which was nearly double the previous school year. Among them, teachers with 10 years or less of experience had the highest turnover rate.
Teachers leaving their jobs are mainly due to family members’ considerations, factors beyond the control of individuals or the school, including the overall social atmosphere, educational policies and curriculum changes, and educational professional status.
It is worth noting that most of the schools interviewed believe that the trend of student leaving and teacher leaving will continue or slightly increase, urging the government to strengthen support for cross-border students, implement small-class teaching, and improve teachers' professional status, recognition, autonomy and morale.
The Association of Secondary School Principals cooperated with the Chinese University to interview about 140 secondary school principals. The survey showed that the number of students who dropped out of school in the 2020/21 school year soared to 4,460 year-on-year.
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The Hong Kong Secondary School Principals Association and the Hong Kong Center for Student Abilities (HKCISA Center) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong have cooperated. From September to October this year, they invited secondary school principals to fill in questionnaires by themselves and collected a total of 140 valid questionnaires, 86% of which came from aided schools ( 120 copies), about 10% from direct subsidy schools (13 copies), the rest are government schools (5 copies) and private schools (2 copies).
4,460 middle school students dropped out in the previous school year, an average of 32 people per school did not
The number of student dropouts in the 2020/21 academic year is obviously about 60% higher than that in the previous two academic years.
In the 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years, about 2,700 people dropped out, an average of about 20 people dropped out of each school.
However, the number of dropouts in the last school year reached 4,460, with an average of 32 dropouts per school.
The number of junior high school dropouts is nearly twice that of high school students.
Of the 4,460 secondary school students who dropped out of the previous school year, about 60% (2,643) indicated that they had left Hong Kong.
The proportion of dropouts and departures from Hong Kong is clearly more than that of the previous two academic years. About 34% of the students who dropped out in the 2018/19 school year left Hong Kong, and 49% of the students who dropped out in the 2019/20 school year left Hong Kong.
The Association of Secondary School Principals cooperated with the Chinese University to interview about 140 secondary school principals. The survey showed that the number of teachers who had left their jobs in the 2020/21 school year reached 987.
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Nearly 1,000 teachers left their jobs in the last school year due to immigration, which is 7 times higher than in previous years
As for the resignation of teachers, the situation is also severe.
The number of teachers leaving in the 2020/21 school year reached 987, with an average of 7.1 teachers leaving each middle school; much higher than the 517 in the 2018/19 school year and 498 in the 2019/20 school year.
In the past three academic years, the number of teachers who have changed careers and retired normally has been relatively stable. On the contrary, the number of teachers who have migrated and retired early has soared. Among them, the number of teachers who choose to migrate has increased by more than seven times. That is, the number of teaching talents "net wastage" is higher than before.
The percentage of teachers who had more than ten years of teaching experience in the last school year and did not reach the retirement age was as high as 54%, compared with less than 40% for the last two school years.
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The teacher’s resignation involves the individual and the school’s uncontrollable factors including disrespect
According to survey data, the main reasons for teachers leaving their jobs in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 school years are the school working environment and personal employment or promotion opportunities.
However, in the 2020/21 school year, there are factors beyond the control of individuals or schools, including the overall social atmosphere, educational policy and curriculum changes, and educational professional status.
The consideration of family members is also the main factor leading to the resignation of teachers.
The survey pointed out that schools generally believe that the social atmosphere, the impact of the epidemic, teacher morale and pressure have caused teachers to leave their jobs, and that a large number of teachers have left their jobs affecting the operation, development and stability of the school.
Some principals bluntly said that "the magnitude and speed of changes in education policy has never been seen before", "the education ecology is difficult", and "the society has no respect for and trust in the education profession" and so on.
Most schools believe that the trend of students leaving school and teachers leaving jobs will continue or slightly increase.
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Most schools believe that the trend of students and teachers leaving school has not ceased
The survey described that most schools believe that the trend of student leaving and teacher leaving will continue or slightly increase, a small number believe that it will increase significantly, and less than two adults believe that the trend will weaken.
Among the principals interviewed, 12% expect to retire in the next three years, and 13% have not decided on where they will go in the next three years. Early retirement is not ruled out.
In the survey, schools are worried about the impact of the tide of leaving school on the school and the entire education ecology, the loss of education talents, the failure of school leadership, and the pressure of regional admissions; and the resignation of a large number of teachers also affects the quality of the teaching profession.
The academic community hopes to strengthen support for cross-border students, implement small-class teaching, and improve teachers' professional status, recognition, autonomy and morale.
Secondary school principals’ meeting: We should think deeply about whether the departure of teachers and students represents the issue of confidence in the local education system
The principal of the secondary school reiterated that the survey explored educational issues purely from the perspective of education, with the well-being of students as the greatest support, and did not involve any political considerations.
As the overall number of students has fallen, the government should make good use of this opportunity to further reduce the number of students in each class and give more adequate attention to students.
The work pressure of the remaining teachers has increased, or they may leave early.
The principals of secondary schools believe that it is necessary to think deeply about whether teachers and students leaving the local education system represent the issue of confidence, and how to rebuild the confidence of the society and educators in education.
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