Hong Kong school closures spark concern for students with special needs

The growing number of Hong Kong schools facing closure due to insufficient enrolment has raised concerns about the impact on students with special needs, as parents say these at-risk institutions often provide better care and instruction than more stable ones. Marcia Ng Mun-chi, co-founder and executive director of the Hong Kong Association for AD/HD, recently raised concerns following the Education Bureau’s announcement last month that 15 public primary schools were at risk of closure. These schools will not be allowed to operate subsidised Primary One classes in the coming academic year due to insufficient enrolment, with authorities saying the figure was the highest in recent years. Ng, whose group raises awareness about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), said most at-risk schools excelled at supporting students with special educational needs (SEN). Parents preferred them after seeing their children struggle in mainstream schools, especially elite ones, she added. Most of these parents had transferred their children to schools that offered lower teacher-to-student ratios and excelled at SEN education, she said. Ng conceded that some schools had positioned themselves as SEN-focused institutions after finding themselves at risk of closing. But they gradually became skilled at special needs education after a few years. “The strength of these schools is that they offer small class sizes, which SEN students need the most,” she said. Despite the bureau earlier saying that 90 per cent of schools had implemented small classes with 25 students, Ng said SEN pupils needed class sizes to be even smaller – 20 or less – which the schools with low enrolment had been offering. “We parents have been looking for these schools, as teachers can offer more attention to SEN children,” she said. Ng noted that even if mainstream schools adopted smaller classes, many were exam-oriented, prioritising academic performance over other areas of development. She said the usual way most mainstream schools took care of students who struggled academically was to put them in after-school classes, which only perpetuated an emphasis on grades and homework and neglected their welfare. “Teachers in those schools are not SEN-trained, nor will they adjust the way in which they assess these children,” she said. “Why are schools facing survival risks able to cater to these students? Because they are sensitive to the needs of SEN students and know how to communicate with those kids skilfully. We’re talking about the culture of the whole campus and how you treat SEN students.” Ng urged authorities not to shut down schools based only on the number of applications from parents, but to consider those institutions’ strengths in taking care of students with special needs. “Only considering the number of applications is market-oriented and it is no different from direct subsidy scheme schools or private schools. It means ignoring these [SEN-focused] schools’ unique strengths,” she said. Under the current policy, a local school must secure at least 16 students to operate a subsidised Primary One class. Pinky Tai Ngan-yung, director general of the Special Educational Needs and Parents Association, said shutting down schools that were good at taking care of SEN students would push these pupils to apply to more academic-oriented institutions. But these schools might consider how SEN students might pull down their overall exam performance and refuse to admit them. She said those institutions facing survival risks were able to offer smaller classes – some as few as 10 students in a group or fewer – allowing them to receive more attention and care from teachers. “With teachers having more time to guide them, SEN students will be more motivated to learn in such an environment and become willing to read by themselves,” she said. Fresh Fish Traders’ School in Tai Kok Tsui, one of the 15 schools at risk of closure, said in its annual report that it prioritised supporting children with special educational needs by allocating resources to them. It hired additional teaching assistants, implemented small group teaching, and offered after-school learning groups in Chinese, English and mathematics, to help SEN students develop effective learning skills. The school also employed speech therapists who set tailored treatment goals for students with speech disorders and conducted therapy sessions to improve students’ language abilities systematically. In addition, the school arranged for parents to observe therapy sessions, so they could better understand their children’s needs and offer support at home to enhance the effectiveness of their treatment. Despite such tailored approaches, Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin last month said there was no such concept of “specialised schools” for SEN students. She added that children with special needs would be taken care of under the policy of inclusive education, in which schools were given support grants based on the number of SEN students they had. “From my experience in education, I do not think admitting more [SEN] students means specialised schools,” Choi said. “We should use diverse ways to help them integrate with others.”

Hong Kong school closures spark concern for students with special needs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Students with special educational needs do better in smaller classes and in schools that look beyond academic grades, parents say

Students with special educational needs do better in smaller classes and in schools that look beyond academic grades, parents say