Why continued school suspensions will impact less privileged students the most

Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have faced the greatest challenges during school suspension – their needs were unsuited for the overnight switch to remote learning

George Tarling

Published: 2:50pm, 19 Aug 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

2020 has been a difficult year for nearly everyone without the surname Bezos. But in the midst of all these challenges, spare a thought for a generation of students facing unprecedented upheaval during their key developmental years. For those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the continued school closures in Hong Kong is further preventing them from accessing the opportunities enjoyed by their more privileged peers.

The most recent set of Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exam results was released earlier this month and, perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a drop in student attainment compared to the last couple of years. Only 18,752 students achieved the minimum results necessary to apply for one of the 15,000 subsidised places at local universities, 6 per cent less than the previous year’s cohort.

Some commentators have highlighted the benefits of this dip. There will be a lot less competition for university positions this year for those students lucky enough to make the cut. However, as a charity that focuses on supporting students from less privileged backgrounds, the Chatteris Educational Foundation is extremely concerned that these results herald an increase in the education gap between privileged and less privileged students - a gap that is already yawning with only around 7 per cent of children from families below the poverty line ever attaining places at university.

Although there are no statistics released comparing DSE results to the socio-economic background of participants, recent research from the University of Hong Kong has highlighted these concerns. Their eCitizen Education 360 study finds that “sustained online learning aggravated the disadvantage faced by lower [socioeconomic status] students because of inadequate digital access and family support”. Moreover, disadvantaged secondary students were significantly more likely to be stressed about catching up with school work and the long-term negative effect of the school closures, while teachers and school leaders perceived that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were less able to benefit from online learning.

This matches our own experience across the last academic year. From our communication with our partner schools, it has been clear that institutions which cater to less privileged students have faced the greatest challenges from the school suspension period. The needs of the students they support were uniquely unsuited for the overnight switch to remote learning. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds often share cramped flats with multiple family members and were unwilling to turn on the camera or speak on audio for online lessons, even if they had access to digital hardware (which was far from guaranteed).

A lot of students struggled to adapt to the new skills and techniques necessary for remote education, especially those with special educational needs. Schools which cater to the 25,000 cross-boundary students who travel from Shenzhen every day suddenly needed to find online learning platforms accessible in mainland China. Anecdotally, a few of our partner schools even reported that they were barely able to contact some students at all across the whole of the closure period.

With suspension of face-to-face classes now confirmed until at least September, the disproportionate impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds is likely to grow increasingly more severe. One important factor to highlight is that in a traditional academic year, Form 6 students preparing to take their DSE exams are generally released from school at some point in February to pursue independent self-directed revision. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that the impact of school closures may be seen the most clearly in next year’s results as the cohort of students moving up into Form 6 at the start of this year will have missed substantially more face-to-face teaching hours.

Moreover, there are some skills essential for the DSE exams that are extremely difficult to practise in a remote learning environment. Our organisation, Chatteris, focuses on supporting students with their English language learning and especially their spoken English. We place inspiring graduates from around the world in local schools so they can encourage students to use English in a relaxed, informal and authentic manner.

On the surface this may seem an easy learning topic to bring online, as all of us have had many conversations on Zoom or our platform of choice over the last few months. However, in reality it has proven very difficult to engage students in online spoken English, let alone those in crowded flats who are too embarrassed to speak or turn on their camera.

An Education Bureau survey has found that only 53 per cent of the online support provided by the English Panels of local schools between February 3 and March 15 included a focus on speaking skills. Although the oral component of the DSE English and Chinese exams were cancelled this year and graded based on coursework, it is unsustainable to keep on neglecting a core pillar of any foreign language learning by continuing to cancel such oral exams in the future.

As with so many challenges caused by the coronavirus, there is no quick fix to these issues. Teachers in local schools, supported by the Education Bureau, performed an admirable job in reacting to rapidly changing circumstances last year and, without this, the education of students may have been impacted even more severely.

Similar flexibility will be required next year. Support programmes, such as the Jockey Club Charities Trust’s admirable provision of free mobile data SIM cards to disadvantaged students, will need to be developed and expanded. On our part, we have spent the summer preparing a new programme of online support materials that will give less privileged students access to authentic spoken English practice, whether they are in school or at home, called Chatteris Learn.

However, as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently warned, the world faces a “generational catastrophe” unless students are returned to the classroom safely or at least offered equal access to comprehensive remote education. With the possibility of school closures further into the year becoming more and more likely, parents, schools, teachers, NGOs, and the government in Hong Kong are going to have to be incredibly flexible and collaborate together in a united front to ensure that the socioeconomic divide does not become insurmountable for disadvantaged students.

George Tarling is a Programme Director at the Chatteris Educational Foundation, an NGO with the mission to raise the English proficiency and self-confidence of Hong Kong’s young people, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds.

Post