Hong Kong schools desperately need more psychologists to help students deal with emotional problems, according to an academic.
There are only about 80 educational psychologists to support more than 1,200 primary and secondary schools.
Tuesday's suicide of a 15-year-old girl in Tin Shui Wai highlighted the need for more, said Lam Sui-fong, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's department of psychology.
Many educational psychologists had such heavy workloads they could only focus on schools which had seen suicides.
'Some of the local practitioners may need to support as many as 30 or 40 schools, so they have time only for remedial, rather than preventive, work,' she said.
There was also a lack of resources for training educational psychologists, said Dr Lam. Her department, which is the only body that trains such practitioners in Hong Kong, teaches about 15 psychologists every two years.