The education minister has expressed doubts over whether smaller secondary school classes would make students in Hong Kong happier, as she dismissed suggestions downsizing could address mental health concerns on campus.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-link made the comments at a Legislative Council panel meeting on the shrinking student population on Friday, when her bureau also said it would only establish new schools if absolutely necessary.
Chu Kwok-keung, the lawmaker representing the education sector and a primary school principal, said the sector was “very disappointed” with the government’s refusal to extend small class teaching from primary schools to secondary ones.
“Currently, mental health among students is a concern,” Chu said. “Imagine a class with 34 students, teachers will find it very hard to manage [to help students in need].”
A recent survey found that 1.6 per cent of Hong Kong secondary students attempted suicide in the last academic year. The figure for those that had considered suicide was almost 50 per cent up on the rate for 2018-19.
But the minister disagreed with Chu, saying: “Would fewer people interacting with each other in one class make students happy? Social development among students is also very important for mental health.
“We should not just exaggerate the effectiveness of small class teaching as if all issues could be solved by small class teaching. This is not the case. Small class teaching is only a teaching strategy.”
Small class teaching was launched in 2009-10 in the primary school sector. About 85 per cent of public primary schools have implemented the policy, with each class capped at 25 students.
Choi said the teacher-to-student ratio at secondary schools was 1 to 11, better than the numbers at semi-private schools.
But Chu rebutted her remarks, saying: “The ratio you have mentioned is misleading.. If you go to the secondary school, have you ever seen a class only having 11 students?”
Choi said she was talking about the general teachers’ manpower in a school as a whole, and not just for a single class.
According to the Education Bureau’s figures in the paper tabled to Legco, the projected population of Primary One pupils aged six in the coming seven years will drop by 31 per cent from 49,600 this year to 34,100 in 2030.
The projected population of school-age Form One students aged 12 will drop by a quarter from 68,300 to 51,500 during the same period.
“The latest figures above reflect a continuing trend of structural decline in the school-age population,” the paper read. “It is further anticipated that both the numbers of school places and schools will decrease along with the decline in school-age population.”
The education minister said it was unrealistic to maintain the existing number of schools and called on the sector to “face the reality”.
In the paper, education authorities also said they would be reluctant to establish new schools as it would have an impact on student enrolment at existing ones.
“Regarding new school sites, we will accord priority to reprovisioning existing schools, through reprovisioning within the same district, cross-district reprovisioning,” it said.
Chu also suggested cutting one class from primary schools with five Primary One classes to minimise closures.
Choi replied the proposal would not only affect the size of some schools but also parents’ decision of where to send their children.
“Is the suggestion just to let some schools admit more students at the expense of parents’ choices and some schools’ sizes?” she questioned.
Some lawmakers said the number of dependants of talent settling in Hong Kong through different admission schemes, including children, had exceeded 68,000, which could help with enrolment problems.
But Choi said those parents might only opt for top or international schools.
She urged those parents to choose a school suitable for their children, and not rely on league tables listed on Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like Chinese social media platform.