Educators and youth workers call for more support for ‘invisible students’ and their families
The breaking point for Hong Kong student Sarah* came in November 2023. The daily stream of tests and quizzes for her Form One classes became too much for the then 13-year-old, and she simply stopped going to school.
“It just never ends. I had to study 16 subjects, and almost all had quizzes, even for music and religious classes,” she said. “It was so exhausting. Whenever I failed, I had to do a re-quiz on top of the scheduled quizzes on that day. There was no chance to finish all the revisions.”
Another factor in her decision to quit was the struggle she faced connecting with her classmates.
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“It was hard to make friends when everyone barely speaks to others and stays in their own circle,” she said.
Overwhelmed by the pressure, she stopped going to classes, becoming one of the thousands of students chronically absent in Hong Kong. The term refers to a student who misses school for seven consecutive days.
After dropping from more than 6,000 in the mid-2010s to about 3,000 between 2000 and 2022, the number of chronically absent students rose to 4,500 in 2022-23 and surpassed 5,500 in the past academic year.
Faced with a worsening problem, overstretched schools are limited in their response, according to frontline educators and youth workers. The needs of pupils who remained must be met and institutional standards maintained to avoid closure, they said.
But effective help could still be given to these “invisible” pupils and their equally stressed parents if educators were provided with the right tools, they argued.
Tip of the iceberg?
While the 5,500 chronically absent pupils accounted for less than 1 per cent of the 662,000 student population, a third were aged between six and 15, making them subject to mandatory education.
Youth Outreach, an NGO, has estimated that more than 20,000 pupils are chronically missing school and “at risk of dropping out”, but most are not flagged to the government as they attend classes sparsely.
The Education Bureau has admitted it is aware of the rising trend in recent years and attributed it to post-pandemic challenges children faced in returning to a normal academic schedule, pledging to strengthen collaboration with schools to tackle the problem.
Other developed economies such as the United States, Britain and Australia have also seen significant post-Covid absenteeism, with 20 to 40 per cent of students missing 10 per cent or more of school days.
Frontline educators describe chronic absenteeism as a complex issue fuelled by multiple factors, including academic stress, social anxiety, mental health problems and strained family dynamics, all of which were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Secondary school principal Li Kin-man, formerly a youth social worker, said isolation had become a common coping mechanism adopted by young people following years of class disruptions and remote learning.
“The Covid-19 pandemic deprived many pupils of opportunities to develop social and communication skills, while at the same time taught some of them to conceal their feelings and isolate themselves,” he said. “When things are breaking down, they look for a comfortable space to retreat to.”
Li said family support, which helped to guard against absenteeism, had also weakened for some students, as parents were too busy making ends meet in a sluggish economy to care for their children’s emotional needs.
Roy*, a school social worker with a decade of experience, said group dynamics among teens had changed in recent years, with the effects of the pandemic working in tandem with the rise of social media.
“We observed that students have become more self-centred and less attuned to others’ feelings when they speak,” he said.
The egocentricity made it harder for students to navigate social interactions, with some showing signs of anxiety from seemingly innocuous interactions, such as a glance from a classmate, he said.
“Social media platforms like Instagram also keep students constantly connected to social situations, including conflicts, even when they have left the campus … There is little space to detach themselves emotionally.”
Personalised back-to-school plan
The Education Bureau will step in for students absent for seven consecutive days, potentially leading to warning letters or attendance orders with legal penalties. Parents who ignore the order risk a HK$10,000 fine and three months in jail.
But authorities rarely deployed the tools, with only 10 warnings and two orders issued in the 2023-24 school year. One reason for the low number, according to the bureau, was that steps were often deemed inappropriate after considering the emotional state of the students and parents.
Educators told the Post that helping students return to school required personalised strategies, starting with home visits to find out the cause of the absenteeism, followed by devising flexible plans for returning to class.
For example, students could start school later in the day, take lessons they felt less stressed about, and in some rare cases, apply to take an entire year off. They can also be referred to mental health professionals when necessary.
Both Li and Roy highlighted the strain on an overstretched school system in handling these delicate cases, calling for increased manpower and resources for schools with higher absentee rates to enable early intervention.
“It’s hard for teachers and school social workers to dedicate a lot of time to follow up on those who do not show up when they are fighting a battle every day at school to handle the many behavioural problems of students,” Roy said.
“Even when we manage to conduct a home visit, the students do not always speak to us … It would be great if the bureau could send psychologists unaffiliated with the schools to facilitate dialogue.”
Principal Li stressed the need for more family-based interventions through better collaboration between education and welfare authorities, for example, by providing parenting education, emotional support and financial aid.
“Parents often try very hard, but they just do not know what to do, with many struggling emotionally,” he said. “We need to empower and strengthen the family system to truly help the students, but schools can hardly do that alone.”
When traditional back-to-school plans fail, vocational training or schools for social development, the latter of which cater to pupils with significant emotional and behavioural challenges in smaller classes, are considered.
But, according to Li and Roy, these options are often chosen with reluctance due to stigma, and the latter involves a lengthy processing time as the scrutiny is strict, leaving students stuck in limbo.
Pause and pivot
Some NGOs offer short-term programmes for pupils struggling to attend school, including the Unusual Academy at the Hong Kong Playground Association and Project Cool Teen at Youth Outreach – both of which were seeking additional resources to handle a rising demand for services.
The three- to six-month programme uses counselling, life skills training and group activities to help young people rediscover motivation and pursue either education or employment.
Iris Wong Yin-wing, in charge of the project at the Unusual Academy, which serves more than 200 young people a year, said she had received 80 applications for the coming session and had to put half of them on a three-month waiting list.
“We focus on the basic needs – a safe, comfortable environment for genuine connections,” she said. “Our game-based learning and group activities create a less stressful atmosphere for children.”
About 80 per cent of its pupils completed the programme, of which half returned to mainstream education, with about 40 per cent choosing vocational training and the remainder looking for work or simply staying disengaged.
The social workers at the academy, who often can gain a deeper understanding of the needs of the pupils, will also talk to the schools involved to help ensure a smooth return to classes.
Wong said most schools were willing to make adjustments, but the institutions themselves were also focused on ensuring the overall student population was meeting academic targets. Schools that perform poorly can suffer from poor enrolment, putting them at risk of closing.
“Many only realise the severity of students’ struggles after they stop showing up to escape from frustrating people and a frustrating environment,” she said.
“But some schools have no choice because they are facing the risk of being axed amid a shrinking student population … everyone is struggling hard.”
Falling through the gap
Vulcan Chu Pui-keung, a social work supervisor at Youth Outreach, which helps about 100 students a year, pointed to a dangerous gap in which younger pupils faced a lack of options after completing the programme.
About one-third of its students remained disengaged after the programme because they were too young for any alternatives besides returning to school.
Chu noted the challenges faced by schools to provide the intensive case management services those pupils needed.
“Chronic absentees are often not the highest priority in the eyes of school workers, but with those having an emotional meltdown, getting into fights or attempting suicide, after handling them all, your day is gone,” he said.
“Some younger pupils become stuck and end up attending short-term programmes offered by NGOs one after another until they are old enough for vocational training.”
Chu said his organisation tried to keep teens engaged by arranging job shadowing at partnering social enterprises, although some NGOs allowed them to repeat the course.
Once they reach the age of 14, the teens can apply for certificate programmes offered by the Vocational Training Council. But he warned that the government needed to improve its mechanism for identifying children who had fallen through the gaps.
“There is a huge group of students sitting around at home without any support,” he said. “If our prediction of 20,000 students at risk of dropping out is accurate, there is no chance the programmes offered by NGOs can handle them all.”
What if school no longer fits?
As of the end of the 2023-24 academic year, 65 pupils, representing 1 per cent of chronic absentees, had not returned to regular classes, including two dozen who had been absent for more than six months.
One 15-year-old boy, who preferred to only give his first name of Chris, has missed school almost every day since he was in the second term of Primary Five.
He decided to officially drop out last year after being asked to repeat Form One for the fourth time.
Once a thriving student who enjoyed school life and extracurricular activities, his enthusiasm vanished when classes moved online during the pandemic.
“I could not adapt to online learning, but the assignments were piling up – I could not keep up at all,” he said. “I was too afraid of being scolded by teachers or judged by classmates for falling behind.”
Chris retreated into online gaming, a temporary escape that soon became an isolating routine.
He tried to return to school a few times but was overwhelmed by fear and anxiety as he struggled to reconnect with peers and catch up academically after missing classes for too long.
“I was scared of making eye contact with others and being asked why I had been away,” he said. “In hindsight, I think I was too tough on myself, I was so afraid of showing anyone my less ideal self.”
Officially withdrawing from school became a way to break away from the vicious cycle of skipping classes and rejoining, and the aimless routine of gaming away his days.
Late last year, he began helping with adventure activities at Youth Outreach, where he attended Project Cool Teen earlier and made about HK$10,000 a month.
Chris said he planned to pursue education at a night school in a few years to obtain better qualifications.
“Those years were a hard time which I dare not look back on,” he said. “Not being able to enjoy a normal school life and making friends remains a regret for me … but I’m happy to live a more fulfilling life now.”
Sarah, 14, took a different path, returning to school last September to repeat Form One after completing the Unusual Academy programme.
She was pleased to see her academic workload significantly reduced, which allowed her to participate in extracurricular activities, such as handball, and to build stronger connections with her classmates.
“I was able to pass when there were fewer quizzes, and even if I failed, I did not have to take a re-test any more,” she said.
When asked what motivated her to return to school, she said: “Perhaps it was time. I had a lot of time to reflect and slowly allow myself to start over.
“I still do not feel like going to school when I wake up every day, but I’ve come a long way, and I don’t want all my efforts to go to waste.”
*Names changed at interviewees’ request.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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