‘Affected by the pandemic’: number of suspected suicides among Hong Kong pupils rises to 31, more than twice that of 2018
- Monthly average of suicide cases among primary and secondary school pupils rises from less than two in last five years to nearly three in 2023
- ‘It is believed that the upwards trend may be affected by the pandemic and the greater challenges students faced after the return to normality,’ education minister says
“In the past five years, 2018 to 2022, the numbers of suspected fatal student suicide cases reported by all primary and secondary schools in the territory were 14, 23, 21, 25 and 25 respectively, while the number as of November 2023 is 31,” Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin told lawmakers on Wednesday.
The latest figure was an about 30 per cent increase compared with the average of the past three years under the pandemic and was more than double the number in 2018, the year before social unrest broke out in Hong Kong.
The monthly average of such suicide cases has risen from less than two in the last five years to nearly three in 2023.
In a circular issued on November 9, the Education Bureau urged the school sector to hold both a “Spread the Love, Care and Shine” campaign and “Mental Health Day” in the same month to strengthen the adaptive ability and stress resistance of pupils, as well as guide them to cope with pressure.
Choi reiterated that the Covid-19 pandemic was behind the surge of cases.
“It is believed that the upwards trend may be affected by the pandemic and the greater challenges students faced after the return to normality,” she said.
She added the bureau had received from parents three complaint cases related to academic pressure in the past three years, which the education authorities requested the schools to investigate.
The minister also said the government would implement a “Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism” in all secondary schools this month and the next to identify and support higher-risk pupils at an early stage.
The mechanism comes with an “off-campus support network” to enhance “external support” for schools facing difficulty in deploying manpower to meet the needs of students.
It also allows school principals to refer pupils with severe mental health needs to the psychiatric specialist services of the Hospital Authority.
The authority had 381 psychiatrists as of March 31 this year, while the attendance at the psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics stood at nearly 970,000 in 2022-23.
Choi said the authority had introduced a programme allowing its patients in a stable condition to receive private medical services to shorten the waiting time of psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics since last year.
