Hong Kong education system not to blame for student suicides, say government advisers
But critics say report fails to propose extra resources to hire more teachers, social workers and psychologists to better identify and help students at risk
But the final report prepared by the Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides, which was submitted to the Education Bureau on Monday, stopped short of calling for more teachers, social workers and psychologists to better identify and help students with problems, prompting educators and social workers to call for extra resources to tackle the problem.
“Our focus is not on adding extra manpower, but how to do better with our current resources,” said Michelle Wong Yau Wai-ching, deputy secretary for education and vice-chairwoman of the committee formed in late March after more than 20 students killed themselves in the first half of the last school year .
The report,which analysed 71 student suicide cases between the 2013-14 and 2015-16 school years, concluded that student suicides were probably the result of mental health problems, negative attitudes and stress from both family and studies.
It recommended 19 measures to tackle the problem ranging from training teachers and parents to become gatekeepers to making use of social media to spread positive messages.
The suggestion to review the education system, which is known to pressure students with homework and tests, was briefly mentioned at the end of the report.