Government efforts to promote Teachers' Day flopped, with a survey revealing the majority of students did not even know September 10 was Teachers' Day.
The survey conducted by Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Organisation interviewed 1,200 teachers, parents and students.
It showed that 60 per cent of students did not know September 10 was Teachers' Day and 74.25 per cent of them thought the promotional efforts for the day were not enough.
Organisation chairman Mervyn Cheung Man-ping said choosing a day at the start of the academic year as Teachers' Day was not wise as teachers, students and parents were busy preparing for the new term and did not have time to prepare any celebrations.
Students who had just started Primary One, Secondary One and Secondary Six were mostly in an unfamiliar school with teachers they did not know, so they would have little interest in organising Teachers' Day celebrations, he said.
He said the Government should move Teachers' Day to December or March-April, by which time students and teachers would have built up some sort of understanding.
However, Nelson Lau Chi- keung, headmaster of Tai Po Old Market Public School, said it was too soon to conclude students and teachers were indifferent to Teachers' Day.
