Let’s listen well to Hong Kong students’ mental health woes

A student advisory council in every secondary school would let young people be heard. We don’t need to settle for reductive understandings

Kenny Lam

Published: 4:30pm, 20 Jul 2024

Why you can trust SCMP

As the dust settles after the release of Hong Kong’s Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) results, the city finds itself at a critical juncture – not just for the thousands of students applying for university but for our society. The annual “grand reveal” is a stark reminder of the intense academic pressures our young people face.

There’s no escaping the need to scrutinise troubling connection between these pressures and mental health.

The statistics are alarming. At least 31 students in Hong Kong were suspected to have taken their lives last year. A recent survey revealed that over 4 per cent of primary and secondary students had contemplated or attempted suicide. Perhaps most tellingly, in the Hong Kong Christian Service survey of students last year, over 70 per cent cited “academic issues” as the primary driver of suicide.

These figures paint a grim picture but also risk oversimplifying a complex issue. As a former secondary school teacher turned researcher focusing on youth issues, I have learned that adolescence is a period of nuance and complexity. If we settle for the reductive understanding that academic pressure leads to mental health challenges, we hobble our ability to develop deeper insights. It could lead to well-intentioned but misguided solutions.

To combat this, I propose the establishment of student advisory councils in every secondary school in Hong Kong. These councils would be where young people’s voices can be centred in discussions about their well-being.

As educators and parents, we often labour under the illusion that we understand our children’s lives very well. Researchers, however, might disagree.

02:48

Hong Kong students receive exam results that may determine their futures

For instance, Harvard educators Emily Weinstein and Carrie James, despite years of studying social media’s effects on teenagers, found many of their assumptions challenged when they interviewed over 3,500 teenagers for their book, Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (And Adults Are Missing). They were struck by the teenagers’ reflections about technology’s perils and the intricate relationship between offline friendships and online availability.

Student advisory councils, common in countries like the United States, Australia and Germany, could bridge the gap between student experiences and administrative decision-making. Progressive organisations such as Coolminds in Hong Kong have youth advisory committees to listen to young people as the foundation of their projects and events.

While many Hong Kong schools have student councils, these typically focus on event planning rather than informing school policies. We have the opportunity to leverage these platforms to gain insights into students’ lives.

With this infrastructure in place, we can begin to ask more nuanced questions – for example, what exactly students mean by academic pressure. A student feeling stressed about examinations due to parental expectations and another feeling lost in gruelling, seemingly endless practice tests might both report “academic pressure” in a mental health survey. However, they clearly require very different interventions.

We can also start reframing questions to highlight students’ strengths and assets. “Positive deviance” is an effective sociological research method where, instead of highlighting problems, researchers inquire about individuals or groups that thrive despite having access to the same resources and facing similar challenges.

The “positive deviants” in Hong Kong’s education system face the same immense academic pressure as others but manage to flourish. We should be ask: What resources are needed to scale such resilience to the broader student population?

11:22

Is Hong Kong’s education system failing non-ethnic Chinese children?

My interviews with recent secondary school graduates revealed surprising insights. Many spoke of the camaraderie forged during classes and test preparations, where the pressure fostered a sense of community and belonging. Most credited their schools with shaping them into productive citizens, rather than merely helping them advance academically.

It is time we reframe our perspective, viewing teenagers not as fragile strawberries needing protection, but as resilient wildflowers capable of flourishing under the right conditions. Sometimes, well-meaning adults trample on these wildflowers without realising it.

While discussing mental health interventions in schools, including those funded by the Education Bureau’s HK$80,000 (US$10,248) subsidy, I asked an experienced teacher at a prestigious secondary school about their most effective change. The school had simply stopped emphasising grades during morning assembly and started recognising students talented in non-academic areas – a free intervention that should have become common school practice long ago.

The issue of academic pressure extends far beyond practice papers and scorecards. By amplifying our children’s voices in this discourse, we can develop better strategies to support their well-being and growth.

As Hong Kong students grapple with their DSE results and navigate their next steps, let’s commit to listening to them more attentively and involving them more meaningfully in school policies and other decisions that affect their lives. Our city’s future depends on it.

Kenny Lam is a Master of Education student in learning design, innovation and technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Lyris Miu contributed to the research in this article

Post