Stakeholders’ Views Gathered at Stakeholder Engagement Session on Promotion of Children’s Joyful Learning and Healthy Development

Group 1: Senior Primary Students

Participants shared their daily activities in the activity of drawing of a clock. They generally spent 8 to 10 hours a day on their studies including attending classes and doing homework, but less than an hour talking with their parents. They generally had an 8-hour sleeping time daily and spent 2 to 3 hours, on average, on their hobbies (such as watching television, playing video games and basketball).
On the level of happiness of school life, in a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being extremely happy), 68% of the participants gave a rating of 6 to 9 and 32% rated 1 to 5.
On the level of happiness of family life, in a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being extremely happy), 79% of the participants gave a rating of 6 to 9 and 21% rated 1 to 5.
Reasons for not enjoying learning included –
- immense stress on academic performance/results, as they were told that academic achievement was crucial to a promising future and their parents cared about their academic performance more than their interests;
- the curricula were so packed that teachers sometimes continued teaching during the recess time; and
- too much homework and school activities.
Participants usually enjoyed the lessons of their favourite teachers and/or subjects, and preferred lessons with interactive activities and connection with daily lives. They believed that learning experience would be enhanced with guidance from teachers, support and encouragement by friends, and support from family members by listening to them and solving their problems together. Group activities and small group lectures could also increase their motivation for learning.
Participants welcomed the engagement session as a platform for them to share views and feelings. They hoped that similar activities could be organised in future.

Group 2: Secondary Students

One third of the participants felt unhappy in learning. Majority of the participants considered the academic pressure too heavy and they preferred to have no examination.
On the key for joyful learning, the participants suggested that –
- more choices of learning (such as Applied Learning courses) and more out-of-classroom activities (such as field trips and study tours) should be offered;
- students should be allowed to select subjects they were more interested in, and the language proficiency requirements for admission to universities should also be relaxed;
- more interactive learning (through the use of computers and videos) and support from teachers, parents and classmates should be provided;
- less homework, recitation, examination, competition and academic pressure but more time for rest and extra-curricular activities; and
- no differential treatment of students irrespective of their academic results, race and gender by teachers.
Key factors for healthy life included support from teachers, family and peers, sufficient leisure time, study-life balance, balanced diet, sufficient rest, good academic result and pursuing of dream.
Key factors for unhealthy life included academic pressure, high expectation and tight control from parents, health and emotional problems, conflict with friends, insufficient sleep time/low quality sleep, heavy homework load, too many after-school activities, as well as excessive video game play.
On integrated education, if schools placed too much emphasis on the academic performance, it would affect the self-esteem of students with special educational need (SEN) who were unable to catch up with the pace of learning of their classmates.
Students should be given more freedom to pursue their dreams and learning, and more respect, support and encouragement. Participants hoped that schools and parents would spare more time to listen and understand their views and feelings.
More resources should be allocated to school social workers to provide better support services to students with mental health issues.
On the perceived level of their health, in a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being extremely healthy), 60% of the participants gave a rating of 6 to 8 and 40% rated 3 to 4.

Group 3: Parents

On the perceived level of happiness of their children’s learning experience, in a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being extremely happy), 47% of the participants gave a rating of 6 to 7, 41% rated 8 to 9, and 12% rated 3 to 4.
Participants shared children’s happy learning experience as follows –
- learning through interactive games and out-of-classroom activities (such as visits and field trips);
- learning subjects that children were interested in;
- receiving encouragement from teachers and recognition of students’ good academic performance (such as granting of scholarship and displaying their work for appreciation of classmates);
- half-day schooling;
- less homework; and
- having good parent-child relationship, especially for the support of children with SEN.
On the contrary, children’s unhappy learning experience often related to too much recitation, examination and homework, short notice for examination and dictation, tight teaching schedule, frequent punishment and unfair treatment by teachers, lack of sleep, rest and play, being bullied in school as well as emotional problem.
The half-day schooling arrangement under COVID-19 pandemic was generally welcomed by parents, as it allowed more play time for students in the afternoon. Schools could also provide homework guidance and different learning experience to students in the afternoon as necessary.
Schools should not put too much emphasis on academic performance, but focus more on promoting the mental well-being and developing the social skills of students. A participant suggested setting a baseline on the amount of homework, and allowing students to choose whether to do the homework exceeding the baseline. Other assessment tools could also be explored to replace examination.
Small class teaching would be beneficial to the development of children, as teachers could pay more attention to the needs of individual children and have better communication with parents.
Schools should have more activity space (including outdoor space) for physical exercise and activities which would benefit the healthy development of children.
While giving assignments to enable children’s learning and revision during long holidays, schools should also allow sufficient time for children to relax and enjoy activities with their families.
More support should be provided to students with SEN and their parents as follows –
- Schools should implement support programmes (such as mentorship programmes) to assist Primary 1 students with SEN to integrate into school life;
- Information on SEN support services should be clearly made available for parents and staff of schools. Schools should also take the initiative to communicate with parents and introduce the services to them in writing.
- Training to enhance teachers’ understanding of the characteristics and needs of students with SEN should be strengthened. Schools should also actively promote “building an inclusive school culture” to students.
- Schools should make effective use of the additional resources provided by the Education Bureau to provide targeted and tailored services to students with SEN.
- Professional support services in schools, such as speech therapy, developmental group activities and psychological counselling services, should be enhanced.
- Schools should provide appropriate adjustment and corresponding equipment to students with SEN in a flexible and timely manner to help them cope with the excessive homework, tests and examinations in schools.
- Manpower of educational psychologist should be increased to shorten the waiting time for conducting assessments and diagnosis of students with special learning needs.
- Sufficient emotional support should be provided to parents of students with SEN. Schools were suggested to establish a network of mutual support for these parents.
- The Government could draw reference from other jurisdictions to enact the special education law, which stipulated the minimum number of teachers in a school that should receive training on the support to students with SEN, and established a mechanism to handle communication issues or assist in deciding on the use of resources to support these students.
- Support to ethnic minority students and their parents should be strengthened. Suitable translation equipment should be provided to facilitate parents’ reading of documents in Chinese (e.g. children’s homework and schools circulars).

Group 4: Principals and Professionals providing on-site Services to Schools

Each KG should be provided with one social worker to support parents/families with welfare needs (especially in districts like Sham Shui Po and Tin Shui Wai) and students with SEN. Educational psychologist services should also be offered for KGs.
More support should be provided to children on the waiting list of the On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services.
At present, teachers could hardly spare time for taking care of the needs of individual students owing to the heavy workload. Small class teaching should be promoted to improve the teacher-student relationship and better cater the needs of students.
The social value and belief that gaining admission to university was the aim of learning had created enormous stress to schools, parents and teachers. Under the current academic structure, all students had to take Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) at Secondary 6 and there was no alternative pathway for students who would like to join the labour market at an earlier stage. The Government should provide multiple pathways for students and enhance parent education on the objectives of education.
Alumni sharing or talks on the benefits of children’s all-round development and happy learning should be arranged to raise the awareness of relevant stakeholders.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the arrangement of half-day schooling had increased the financial stress of grassroots families. More care services for children should be provided for dual-income parents during after-school hours.
Some participants shared their successful experience in implementing happy schooling policy where Primary 1 and 2 students were not required to take examination to facilitate their transition from KG to primary school. These successful models should be further shared to other schools.
As teachers played a significant role in the education and development of students, schools should be mindful of the mental well-being of teachers.
The whole-day primary school mode should be changed to half-day schooling arrangement, where schools could provide counselling services/activities to students in need in the afternoon, and students be given the choice to stay at school or not in the afternoon according to their needs.

Group 5: Teachers and School Social Workers

Teachers shared their successful experience in their work, including organising activities which were well received by students, students enjoying learning or showing improvement, good teacher-parent relationship and small class teaching.
The difficulties encountered by teachers included the lack of manpower, resources and flexibility in teaching under the current curriculum, heavy workload, and high expectations from parents, students, schools and society for teachers owing to intense academic competition among students. They also expressed that it was even more challenging in delivery of online teaching under COVID-19 pandemic, as there was a surge in workload and a lack of support in information technology.
Students under Primary 4 could still enjoy happy learning, but started facing academic pressure since then. It was not uncommon for them to stay up late for studying, which would affect their physical and mental health.
Some students lacked self-confidence would likely develop negative feeling when they did not perform well academically. A mechanism should be worked out to facilitate students to explore different pathways according to their interests and abilities. Some students who did not aim to receive tertiary education should be allowed to exit at an earlier stage, say at Secondary 3, instead of after taking HKDSE at Secondary 6.
The existing workload of school social workers is too heavy, even though there were two school social workers in every public sector secondary school. With the increasing caseload and the higher expectation on school social workers, they had to serve not only the students, but also their parents and the teachers.
In implementing integrated education, the Government should provide sufficient resources and support to teachers, social workers and parents, and make necessary adjustment to the curriculum.
More financial support and manpower resources, including more teachers and other related professionals (such as educational psychologists, clinical psychologists and school social workers) should be provided to schools. The existing administrative duties of teachers and other professionals should be reduced so that they could focus on their core duties.
Students should have reasonable time for rest, sleep and play for their healthy development, while implementation of half-day schooling and less class hours, homework and examinations for students were recommended. KGs should also be provided with more space for physical activities.
The Government could draw reference from the experience of other jurisdictions to improve the teaching method and learning environment.
Support to teachers and social workers at schools for their mental wellbeing was not adequate.