THE Hongkong Council of Social Service is very concerned about the recent upsurge of incidents of student suicide, especially the lowering of age of the young people involved.
We believe that these tragedies are caused by a variety of factors.
On one hand, the growing material affluence of our society provides our youth with all kinds of comforts and protects them from hardship. On the other, the alienated interpersonal relationships prevailing in our society and the over-emphasis of our education system on academic performance, create too much frustration and failure for them to cope with.
To make things worse, our education system is inadequate in facilitating the holistic development of young people, such as the building up of a positive self-image and coping skills in face of difficulties.
The situation is further worsened by the weakening of the supportive roles of family and peers. As families with both parents working is a common phenomenon, little time is spared by the parents to communicate with their children.
We urge young people suffering from emotional disturbances to make use of social work services such as school social workers and the neighbouring children's and youth centres.
We also appeal to parents to spend more time to communicate with their children.
