Statistic of the Day: HK Students Contemplating Suicide

Some 2.8 percent of student surveyed had suicidal thoughts

It's tragic to discover thousands of primary and secondary students tried to commit suicide in the last school year.

The Department of Health released a survey of 233,000 primary and 97,000 secondary pupils, asking them about their growth, vision, hearing, psychosocial health, and behaviour.

In the results the department found 2.8 percent of the children reported thinking about committing suicide in the last academic year, while 1.3 percent -- or almost 4,300 -- said they actually attempted to take their own lives.

Chinese University psychiatry professor Sandra Chan says the resumption of face-to-face classes after the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in increased emotional stress among students.

"You can easily see that in the real-world situation when students' academic demands are rising, especially in the post-Covid [era] and when schools actually are catching up on schedule and the curriculum that they have missed in the past few years... You can imagine the kind of adjustment coupled with academic stress," she said.

Chan said more needed to be done to make mental health services more accessible.

"There must be some multi-level collaboration to prioritise mental well-being as part of the core education initiative, so that will help our family and students address their needs and use the resources available. The priority really is to have policies at school level, at health care level to make these resources accessible and trusted."

While catching up on academics and having difficulty in performing well on tests may be one issue, the other is how the school system has evolved to include more national education, seeing friends and relatives leaving Hong Kong and wondering what hope they have left for their future in the city.

Children are very sensitive, and their emotions need to be recognised and addressed... unless the government doesn't think they are the future of Hong Kong...

Spending 25 Percent Lesson Time on Patriotism

Children will spend more class time on patriotic education

Hong Kong parents who have taken their children out of the local school system to be educated overseas must be breathing a sigh of relief they did the right thing.

That's because the Education Bureau has asked (not directed) primary schools to spend up to one-quarter of the study time towards patriotism and national security during the six years of primary education.

Topics to be covered include "the understanding of Chinese culture, the constitution, Basic Law and national security education".

Authorities also recommended organising "cross-disciplinary" exchange visits to mainland China.

This is the first change in the curriculum in eight years. A bureau spokesman said there was a need to update the primary curriculum guide to "enhance student learning", and noted the ones for kindergarten and secondary school had been updated in 2017.

There are seven learning goals, but the first and main one is to "understand our country and the Chinese culture, and cultivate a sense of belonging and national identity towards our country through national education and national security education".

In order to teach all this information, schools are to set side up to 25 percent of the 4,752 hours of lesson time during the six primary school years for organising activities to brush up their understanding of the constitution, the Basic Law and national security.

That time will be cut into lesson time for learning the Chinese and English languages, as well as mathematics.

As a parent this must be infuriating to know that precious class time is being squandered on national education, training young children to parrot Communist ideas and beliefs.

Perhaps there will be a continued spike in students leaving the city later this year?

Wanted: Teachers, Students in Hong Kong

Over 4,000 teachers have left the school system this past year

The school year has just started in Hong Kong, but with a lot fewer teachers and students.

The latest government figures show more than 4,000 teachers left their jobs in the past school year, a five-year high and 70 percent spike from the year before. 

Apparently this past summer there have been hundreds of ads posted in newspapers of schools looking for teachers.

Teachers must instil patriotism in students now

In the meantime, some 30,000 fewer students attending primary and secondary school in September 2021 compared to the preceding October.

Not only do teachers have to instil patriotism in students through national education, but also study President Xi Jinping's speech in the case of secondary students, while newly-revised textbooks have hardly any reference to June 4 or the candlelight vigil in Hong Kong.

Teachers are walking a fine line made worse by the threat that students and teachers can report on teachers who may be violating the national security law.

Nevertheless, the authorities refuse to acknowledge the real reason why so many teachers and students have left the school system.

The government claims teachers left their posts for various reasons including retirement, further study or found a job in another sector.

Schools have advertised for teacher positions

Schools are so short of teachers that even fresh education graduates who don't yet have their teaching diploma have been hired. 

However they are gloomy about their own career prospects with all the political requirements placed on them.

"There's not much that can be changed," said a 23-year-old university graduate who has taught a year of English in a secondary school. "You either submit, or quit."

Rewriting Hong Kong's History

Two million people came out to protest on June 16, 2019

The Hong Kong government has moved quickly to rewrite the city's history in textbooks.

The newly revamped liberal studies textbook now says that Hong Kong was never a British colony because the Chinese government didn't recognise unequal treaties that ceded the city to Britain.

It also says the United Nations removed Hong Kong from a list of colonies in 1972 after China made the demand.

Textbooks claim HK was not a British colony

In addition the textbooks have adopted the government's version of the 2019 protests, saying they were a threat to national security and that external forces were behind the unrest.

Veteran Chinese history teacher Chan Chi-wa explained most local textbooks in the 1990s and before mentioned Hong Kong as a "British colony", and later on it was described as Britain exercised colonial rule over Hong Kong in 1997. 

Sounds like the same thing, but more wordy, no?

Chan said last year at a briefing by education officials stated clearly that Hong Kong was not a colony, and this concept needed to be taught to students. He also noted only the Chinese perspective was presented in the revamped textbooks.

When it came to describing the 2019 protests, one textbook claimed protesters had openly challenged the central government by asking foreign forces to interfere in Hong Kong affairs, and impose sanctions on the city.

Another textbook liberally mentions national security more than 400 times, saying legislation was imposed out of "urgency" due to violent activities in Hong Kong in 2019. The textbook said the central authorities believed foreign forces were involved in the unrest and that the city's government could not handle them on its own.

People like Maria Tam are mentioned in textbook

As if that wasn't enough, the textbook highlights key pro-Beijing politicians, including Basic Law Committee vice-chairwoman Maria Tam Wai-chu, Lau Siu-kai of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, and Professor Priscilla Lau Pui-king, a former Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress.

Yet another textbook claimed the 2019 protests disrupted social order, disrupted law-abiding awareness of some people and serious endangered national security. 

A teacher of liberal studies for 10 years who spoke on condition of anonymity said they already expected the textbooks to entirely quote official information on how the national security law came to be imposed.

"Discussing the issue with different perspectives and critical thinking only happens in liberal studies, but not this subject," the veteran educator said, adding the guidelines did not require them to teach details like police performance during the protests.

Meanwhile Scientia Secondary School principal Wong Ching-yung said textbooks should not go into details of the unrest as people would have different views...

Liberal Studies aims to instil nationalism 

Isn't that part of the point of education? To be able to freely and openly discuss different points of view to promote a pluralistic society and teach students tolerance and diversity?

But when it comes to history, it seems the government already has the upper hand in trying to whitewash history. But as it is only the third anniversary of the June 16 protests, where 2 million people came out on the streets against the extradition bill, memories and emotions are still raw -- young and old participated.

It will take several generations to try to completely change the narrative.

Sole Candidate Reveals Election Platform

Lee finally shows off his election platform today

The sole candidate running for the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong finally unveiled his platform just days before the election on May 8.

John Lee Ka-chiu promised to strengthen governance, boost land and housing supply, improve Hong Kong's competitiveness, and build a caring society.

Lee has made requisite visit to grassroots families

Housing is a top issue for Beijing and now it's up to Lee to tackle it, just like every other chief executive has since Tung Chee-hwa in 1997 and they have all failed abominably.

How is Lee really going to break the developers' small circle and make them build more public housing remains to be seen, as no other leader has managed to make them heel? The supply of land is tight and that's what makes property values so high. No one wants to see them plunge. 

Meanwhile in his platform, the former chief secretary proposes a new scheme that would allow people to move into new public housing estates earlier, even when the surrounding infrastructure is not fully ready. He said that could shorten people's wait times by about a year.

But who wants to live in a completed building and yet there are no public transportation? How are these people supposed to get around? Walk? Bike? Maybe Lee has forgotten these low-income residents can't afford a car and parking space...

China is more developed at the border than HK

Lee has also proposed a pilot scheme to help those living in subdivided flats by giving them job training and support to some 1,000 school children... what that means is not clear, but what kind retraining are they talking about? If it's just to make a few dollars more per hour, it's not going to help these families significantly. He claims this program, which would run for two to three years would help tackle generational poverty.

That sounds like really short term help -- getting people out of poverty takes years of support. This is where NGOs and grassroots groups help low-income people with long-term solutions, but many of these organisations are worried about possibly violating the national security law if they do a better job than the government.

If elected Lee says he will review and plan for the Northern Metropolis and Lantau Tomorrow Vision schemes, which means current Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's proposals could be further tweaked, which is a good exit if he needs one. While further integrating with the mainland makes sense for Hong Kong, how is this going to work exactly? We hope the latter idea will be scrapped for environmental reasons.

Lee says national education will be strengthened

He is also keen on further enhancing national education for students. This is expected, as it is an order from Beijing. How can this be a taken seriously as part of his platform?

How about some new exciting ideas, John? 

Without a viable competitor, how is the public supposed to consider Lee a good candidate?

Oh I forgot -- we're not voting -- only 1,500 Beijing-approved are.

Surely he's going to do better than 689 and 777 when Lee already has more than 700 nominations...