Checks needed to counter school dictators

An investigation has been launched into the suicide of a teacher and the tragedy points to a widespread problem of schools operating like serfdoms with little accountability to parents, teachers and community representatives

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A teacher committed suicide earlier this month at TWGH’s Leo Tung-hai Lee Primary School, in Tin Shui Wai. Photo: RTHK

Alex Lo

Alex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China.

Published: 5:28pm, 27 Mar 2019Updated: 10:33pm, 27 Mar 2019

A teacher who committed suicide earlier this month has caused much soul-searching within the community. The tragedy in Tin Shui Wai is especially controversial because of claims the teacher was bullied by her school’s principal, who subsequently took leave reportedly to seek psychiatric help.

The school, its sponsoring body, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGH), and even the Education Bureau have drawn criticism. But without knowing all the details, it’s difficult to assign blame at this early stage. TWGH has launched an official probe.

But this case does point to a widespread problem that has long plagued the local education system: many aided and direct subsidy schools operate like serfdoms with little accountability to parents, teachers and community representatives such as those from their district councils. Whether you are a parent, teacher or student, if you are not in the good graces of senior teachers and the school principal, you are out of luck. There is little recourse to seek redress. That, reportedly, was the situation the teacher found herself in and which reportedly drove her to kill herself.

Today, so long as a school satisfies certain key financial and enrolment numbers, education authorities will leave it alone. This is especially so if it is run by a powerful sponsoring body such as TWGH or the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Joseph Zen led unsuccessful legal challenges to school-based management reform. Photo: AFP

During the early years of education reform after 1997, the government did make a concerted effort to tackle this problem by introducing so-called school-based management reform. Essentially, this meant letting in more parents, teachers and community leaders as members of a school’s board, which would play a greater supervisory role than before.