Hong Kong teachers urge authorities to reduce their workload to allow time for pupil counselling after recent rise in youth suicides

Hong Kong teachers and an expert on suicide prevention have appealed to authorities to reduce the heavy workload in schools to allow more time for staff to give vital counselling and support to pupils grappling with mental health problems.

The call for action came after a university analysis of media reports found a recent increase in the number of youth suicides in the city, with 22 teenagers attempting suicide or taking their own lives between August and October this year compared with 11 over the same period in 2022.

“Students who commit suicide have a huge sense of helplessness and hopelessness,” Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, founding director of the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong, said on a radio programme on Saturday.

Yip, who oversaw the study, said the prolonged suspension of classes over the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in a poor support network for pupils, who often found themselves with no one to turn to when they needed help, especially when faced academic difficulties, a new environment or family problems such as parental divorce.

Lawmaker Lillian Kwok Ling-lai, also a registered teacher, said frontline staff, who often knew the pupils well, were swamped with work and did not have much time to counsel those who were struggling.

“I have followed a student case which required me to spend over an hour daily,” she said on the same programme. “But by the time I had finished the casework and my schoolwork, it was nearly 11pm and I had to wake up at 5am the next morning.”

Kwok accused education authorities of piling up assignments without scrapping others that were two decades old and out-of-date.