Students give teachers improvement tips

Several hundred teachers and principals were given a lesson on how to run their schools this week from an unlikely source - their students.

'Very often when we want to improve a school, the administrative unit will come up with new policies or ideas. These may sound like they will work but whether they do or not depends on the students,' said Jocelyn Chow Chung-kiu, a Form Seven student and former head girl at St Mary's Canossian College.

'You should listen to your students because you have spent all these years teaching them logical thinking, you had better utilise your resources.'

Jocelyn was one of about two dozen primary and secondary pupils giving their views at 'Putting Students First', a city-wide conference on the role of students in school improvement held on Monday by the Hong Kong Schools Self-Evaluation Network in conjunction with the Education and Manpower Bureau.

Archie McGlynn, director of the network and former chief schools inspector in Scotland, said students were one of the most important voices to be heard in schools.

'Students are the ones who have to put their bottoms on the seats every day,' Mr McGlynn said. 'I am a firm believer in schools, principals and teachers shadowing students - following them for a day and seeing the school through their eyes.'

And in some local schools, that is exactly what is happening.

Nico Mang Shing-yau, a Primary Six pupil at Tai Po Old Market Public School (Plover Cove), said his school's student council provided an effective channel to pass feedback to the school's management.

'Every representative on the council can express their opinions and ideas to recommend to teachers how to improve the school and change policy,' he said.

Student input had resulted in improvements to the contents of lunch boxes and had an influence on the way teachers structured lessons, he said. They also successfully campaigned to be allowed to bring mobile phones to school.

Joshua Yau Chung-wan, chairman of the network and principal of Tsung Tsin Christian Academy, said this was an example of the emphasis schools in the network were placing on involving students in self evaluation and reform.

'Many teachers think students will make silly suggestions. But we find that if you trust the students, their input can be vital,' he said.

David Coles, chief quality assurance officer for the EMB, said there had been a sea-change in educators' attitude towards the student voice in recent decades.

'When I started teaching all those years ago, if you'd said we should be listening to students more, you'd have had to take sick leave because they'd think you weren't thinking properly,' he said.