Stakeholders' Views Gathered at Stakeholder Engagement Session on "Challenges Faced by Children after Resuming of Normal School Life in Post-COVID Era"

Students of Primary Schools and Junior Secondary Schools

Students welcomed the resumption of normal school life. They felt happy to hang out and chat with their classmates and friends in person. They also enjoyed the time spent in schools, in particular playing sports during recesses and physical education classes, and participating in diversified activities.
Students was positive about face-to-face classes because it allowed them to be more focused and achieve a more effective learning. Despite the sweat and tears, they were happy to see themselves making progress in learning.
Some participants lost weight after returning to school as the school lunch was healthier. Some preferred to wear masks to hide their acne and facial expression.
Some participants worried about the increasing burden of schoolwork, including homework, tests and dictations, long class hours, etc. They also got bored of double lessons. They had less sleep but had to wake up early to go to school. They were stressed and felt tired both mentally and physically. They also spent less time on their hobbies and being with their families.
Some participants looked for more fun and interaction in classes as well as more support from teachers on doing homework. They also hoped that teachers could arrange more school activities and participate in these activities together with them.
A participant observed that some secondary one students did not know how to socialise with classmates due to the lack of interaction with others during the pandemic. Schools should offer courses to train their social skills and social etiquette, and deploy more resources on the emotional support for students. Some programmes, such as reading buddies program, could facilitate the communication among students.

Parents with Children Studying in Kindergartens/Primary/Secondary Schools

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Development of Children
- It was hard for children to develop social skills during the pandemic when eLearning was adopted in majority. They could not make any friends and did not see the importance of making friends. Children with dyslexia found it difficult to recognise the faces of classmates and teachers on the screen. They were also weak in teamwork skills. Besides, they generally lacked self-confidence and was too shy about talking to strangers. There were also more children suffering from mental health issues such as depression.
- Prolonged mask wearing affected children’s social development. Children were overwhelmed by the fear of being infected, and refused to take off their masks out of insecurity. Children going through puberty tended to hide their faces with masks due to the lack of confidence in their appearance. Some children wearing masks from young age were not able to understand others’ emotions from the facial expression.
- Prolonged home stay had a negative impact on children’s physical health. They had worsened physical fitness and the problem of overweight due to the lack of outdoor activities and exercises. Some had developed different health issues, such as eczema and shortness of breath. Children had more visual problems because of the frequent use of electronic devices.
Positive Impacts on Children after Resuming of Normal School Life
- Children were generally eager going back to school and meeting their classmates and teachers. They also enjoyed taking part in school activities and outdoor activities. Children restored to a healthier daily routine and lifestyle after resuming normal school life, including more balanced diet and regular sleep habit. They have made remarkable progress in difference areas, such as physical development, self-care skills, learning progress, independence, etc.
Challenges after Resuming of Normal School Life and Support Measures
- Some students could not get well with others due to the lack of socialising skills. There were occasional conflicts among students in classes. The Government was suggested to deploy more resources to enhance social worker service and counselling service in schools with a view to facilitating early identification of students with various needs (including special education needs (SEN), mental and emotional issues) and provision of support.
- Schools should organise more extracurricular activities, such as school picnics and visits, to enrich children’s school life experience and facilitate their development of social experience.
- Parents found it stressful for keeping track of children’s learning progress and guiding them to do homework and revision for examination. It was particularly challenging for working parents. Mental health and emotional support should be stepped up to ease their stress in helping their children adjust to normal school life. Some suggestions were organising workshops on emotion management and enhancing parent mutual support network. The Parent Teacher Association could recruit volunteers from their members for providing support and counselling to parents in need.
- Some schools focused more on achieving academic success, and did not pay much attention to the emotional needs and learning progress of individual students. Heavy schoolwork and school activities casted a burden on students and their parents, especially for students with SEN.
- Many kindergarten students suffered learning loss during the pandemic. More support should be provided for K3 students to progress to primary school, such as providing them with transitional activities and an adjusting period, to help them transit to primary school life.
- Children were addicted to using electronic devices. Guidelines on how to use electronic devices properly should be disseminated to students. They should also be taught on self-discipline of using electronic devices and prevention of addiction. Besides, schools should set up reading programme or classroom reading time to encourage students to develop an interest of reading physical books.
- As children struggled to take off masks, the Government could consider introducing guidelines on the proper use of face masks and giving recommendation on the occasions where masks should be taken off.
On Students with SEN
- As it was difficult for teachers and school social workers to identify and arrange assessment for children with SEN during the pandemic, they missed out the golden period for receiving intervention. Moreover, the waiting time for relevant services might take years. The Government was suggested to shorten the waiting time of training and rehabilitation services with a view to providing timely support to students with SEN.
- Some participants proposed to provide onsite physical and occupational therapy services in schools, and to expand the scope of On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services (OPRS) to cover primary one to three students. The community support should be enhanced by setting up community health centres for provision of professional services to children in need, as well as the support to their parents. There should also be a designated case manager to follow up the progress of each case of the child with SEN.
- Public education on SEN should be strengthened to reduce stigma and discrimination against children with SEN. The curriculum content of General Studies for primary schools could be used for teaching students the values of care, respect and inclusiveness. Besides, it was suggested to organise more parent talks to enhance parents’ knowledge and skills in supporting their children with SEN.
- The newly recruited teachers had little understanding of students with SEN and lacked experience in handling the needs of these students. More training and support should be provided to these teachers.
Others
- Some parents could hardly monitor their children using electronic devices to do e-assignments and/ or attend online lessons as they had little knowledge of the eLearning timetable of individual subjects of schools. They suggested that school should better coordinate the use of eLearning of different subjects and better communicate with parents.

Teachers and Social Workers

On the Challenges after Resuming of Normal School Life
- The social development as well as speech and language development of students were significantly affected as they lacked opportunities to socialise and communicate with others during the pandemic. They did not know social and classroom etiquette, such as raising hand before asking questions. There were more students with emotional and behavioural problems, in particular children with SEN. Increased conflicts among students were observed in schools. Some students suffered from social anxiety and were not confident to speak in class.
- In view of the increasing use of electronic devices and the Internet, students were exposed to potential dangers such as online sexual abuse. The increased screen time could lead to addiction, and affected students’ concentration and ability to learn.
- Some students used to sleep late during suspension of face-to-face classes and needed more time to adjust to the timetable of normal school life. They also lacked concentration in class. Parents might arrange addition tutorial classes and extra-curricular activities for their children outside school hours to keep up on their progress, causing fatigue to them.
- Students had more disputes with parents over different issues, including the use of electronic devices, unwillingness to go back to school, learning progress, homework and examination, etc. Parents experiencing extreme stress or emotions might more likely prone to abuse their children.
- There were rising cases of self-harm and suicidal thoughts among children. As the mental health of children was connected to their parents, more support should be given to parents to cope with their mental health challenges.
- Some students with SEN have not received timely assessment, intervention and support during the pandemic. After resuming to normal school life, there were more students who had learning difficulties pending assessment and referral for follow-up services.
- Kindergarten teachers were sometimes stressed about handling the requests of overprotective parents. For examples, some parents requested to allow their children to come class late for getting more sleep.
- The development of kindergarten students lagged behind amid the pandemic and they were not yet ready for progressing to primary school. The Government should provide adequate support for parents and children to ensure a smooth transition from kindergarten to primary one.
On Support Measures
- More recognition, encouragement and commendation should be given to students to help them build up self-confidence. It was also suggested to make use of the community resources to enrich the school experience of students.
- Some kindergarten students were unwilling to go to school. It was suggested to arrange more interactive games and activities in the class to increase their motivation to go to school.
- Schools should review the teaching schedule, homework arrangement and examination schedule in a timely manner to help students adjust to the normal school life, for example, small group learning, half-day school arrangement as a transition. The Government should consider deploying more resources to support students with SEN to keep up with the learning and training progress, and students in Kindergarten-cum-Child-Care-Centre/ Special Child Care Centres to transfer to ordinary schools.
- As the mandatory reporting regime for suspected child abuse would be implemented, the Government should strengthen parents’ awareness of child protection through, for example, providing talks or seminars to them on the context of the legislation.
- In view of the limited service capacity of school educational psychologists, the waiting list for assessment and support were very long. A participant proposed that the Government should introduce more initiatives to support students awaiting for assessment, such as the Pilot Scheme for ADHD+.
- More support should be provided to parents on parenting and handling behavioural problems of their children through seminars, talks and workshops. It was also suggested to organise mindfulness activities for parents to help them relax from the stress of parenting. Schools could facilitate the set up of parent mutual support group to provide a platform for parents to share information, suggestions and difficulties on parenting, and support one another.

School Principals and Healthcare Professionals

On the Development of Children
- Children lacked exercise and spent more time on digital devices and internet during the pandemic, leading to the problem of overweight, decline in physical fitness. To establish a healthy life style, children were encouraged to do more outdoor activities.
- The development of social skills was affected as children barely socialised with people during the pandemic. The self-care skills (such as toileting skills) also deteriorated. Some kindergarten students had to wear diapers to schools. More serious behavioural problems among children were also observed.
- There were increasing number of children seeking health services because of emotional problems. They felt anxiety about taking off masks and avoided eating in student canteens. There were also more conflicts between children and family members arising from arguments over adapting and restoring to routine.
- The development of children with SEN were mostly affected. Regression was observed in their social skills, concentration, motor and coordination skills, and skills in doing daily routine tasks. Mask wearing hindered their language and speech development. They were also anxious about meeting and talking to people.
On the Challenges after Resuming of Normal School Life
- Students, especially secondary school students, experienced more stress from studies. Senior form students had to prepare for the public examination whereas the junior form students were found weak in study techniques.
- Some students did not get used to the school timetable and the mode of full day class and displayed signs of fatigue in class. The emotion of students with SEN also fluctuated for adapting to a new study environment.
- Some students (including cross-boundary students) showed unwillingness to go to school. There was a concern about the problem of hidden youths who were constantly absent from classes. Cases of absentees should be identified early and intervened where appropriate, in order to help them resume schooling and maintain regular attendance at the soonest possible time.
- For ethnic minority students, their learning progress dropped significantly, particularly in the Chinese subjects, as they had no access to Chinese at home and their family support was comparatively weak. Their performance in homework was not satisfactory and some of them did not submit homework. They were also exposed to more harmful online content, such as drugs and violence, via social platforms during the pandemic.
- Teachers were stressful from the surge of workload, change of teaching modes, and handling of various students’ issues (such as emotional and behavioural problems, learning progress, etc.) and offering support to them. Teachers also found challenging to communicate with parents who were overprotective of their children. Some other participants were concerned about the teachers’ physical health conditions, such as symptom of brain fog after recovery from COVID-19 pandemic.
- It was important to properly identify students with SEN to provide timely assessment and intervention, in particular for students in primary two to three as their condition might be neglected when studying in primary one under the pandemic. Besides, teachers sometimes found it hard to ascertain if the students were having special education needs or they were just performing not up to standard due to the pandemic.
- Some participants shared that there was insufficient supply of supporting staff, such as school janitors and child care workers in their schools because of the increasing workload after the resuming of normal school life. As infection control such as cleaning and sterilising school campus should be stepped up, the manning ratio of school janitor should be reviewed.
On Support Measures
- More support should be provided to teachers to handle increasing behavioural and disciplined problems of students. Teacher training on classroom management should be stepped up. Teachers should be trained on mental health and emotional issues, and how to identify different conditions of students and provide timely support or make referral to other professional services.
- Some participants suggested that the Government should build more playgrounds and parks with sensory stimulation facilities to facilitate the physical health and development of children.
- Many parents were not certain if their children was delayed in development or the children needed more time for catching up after the pandemic. It was suggested to provide parent education on children development to enrich their understanding of the pace of development of children.
- Additional provisions should be provided to kindergartens admitting students with SEN. While OPRS was provided on a weekly basis, it was suggested to create a post in kindergartens responsible for coordinating the training and other services and provide support for students with SEN.
- The service scope of Student Health Service should be enhanced to cover students showing development regression due to the lack of training amid the pandemic, so that proper intervention could be provided to them in a timely manner.
- EDB was suggested to arrange occupational therapists to provide regular services to schools, including assessment services and provision of professional advice.
- It was suggested to organise life-oriented courses designed and provided by occupational therapists in secondary schools to help high-risk students to develop a healthy life style. Collaboration of the medical, social welfare and education sectors was necessary to prevent drug addiction and drug abuse among children and teenagers.
Others
- A participant suggested the Government to give one year grace period to those schools with under-enrollment before making the decision to cease their operation, considering that some cross-boundary students still chose to study in mainland China for the time being.