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Letters | Hong Kong schools need smaller classes, not students from outside the city

  • Readers discuss the Education Bureau’s approach to dealing with the drop in student numbers, and the need for bolstering social-emotional learning in schools

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Students return to school in Sheung Shui on September 4, the first day of the new term. Photo: Jelly Tse
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I am writing to express my deep frustration at a recent Cable TV interview with Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin. Her responses to questions regarding the drastic drop in student numbers were inadequate and out of touch with the reality of our education system.
One of the most infuriating moments of the interview was when Choi was asked whether the Education Bureau would take this opportunity to launch small-class teaching. Choi said the government would not push class sizes up but would maintain them at 31-32 students, implying that such student numbers are considered small.
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In a lesson lasting 35-40 minutes, how long can a teacher possibly have their eyes on the average student, let alone cater to students’ individual differences and needs?

Even worse, Choi attempted to justify this by giving an example of schools with insufficient student intake, which she said could have smaller class sizes of around 13 students. This is simply not the reality for the majority of the 500 secondary schools in Hong Kong, and certainly not for the majority of students who attend these schools.

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Most students are enrolled in government or government-subsidised schools with teachers who are short of lesson preparation time and are constantly under pressure to run different competitions, programmes and extracurricular activities beyond normal school hours. It is a shame that the secretary for education does not seem to understand the dire situation in schools, despite her own background as a teacher and principal.

Furthermore, I find it absurd that the Education Bureau believes Hong Kong should be attracting students from outside the city. The focus of local education, subsidised by the government, should be local students – the children of local taxpayers.
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