The biggest stress for students: parental pressure

As an educator and parent for nearly three decades, I am pleased to read concerns about students being under too much academic pressure. While parents often identify the source of the pressure as results-oriented educational systems and schools giving too much homework, I get mixed messages when I sit on the other side of the parent-teacher conference table.

From where I sit, unrealistic parental expectations of a child's abilities and potential seem to be the most common cause of stress among students.

Generally, high achievers and Asian parents find it difficult to accept a less-than-stellar performance from their children.

For example, a student might be advised to take the core, rather than the extended, paper in an International General Certificate of Secondary Education exam. Parents immediately resist the recommendation, given that the maximum grade would then be a C. Their response is fairly consistent: "We'll get him (her) a tutor and he (she) should get an A."

Then there is the International Baccalaureate (IB) subject selection, where parents often insist their child should take the higher-level option even though the child doesn't meet the grade requirements. When students struggle to understand the concepts of a demanding subject and its accompanying workload, concern is raised that the student is under pressure. However, it's neither the school nor the teacher that is subjecting the student to stress - it goes back to subject selection. Sometimes, it goes back to selecting the appropriate secondary school education for the student.

The number of IB schools may be growing in Hong Kong, but the IB diploma is not for every student.