HK teachers struggle to deal with students' emotional issues

Waiting list

However, for regular students experiencing the normal strains of adolescence and whose cases are not classified as urgent, there is a waiting list of around 100 weeks or longer for consultation, according to the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong.

Effectively this means there is no support for students experiencing the onset of mental health problems, especially if they don't appear to be affecting people around them.

For example, when Cindy and the resident social worker had done all they could to calm Andrew down, all they could do was to leave him on his own - and follow the social worker's suggestion to move him away from the windows. Eventually, he took time out to deal with his emotional problems.

"Increasing the number of social workers and school educational psychologists is important," Quat said.

In 2016, six to 10 schools shared one educational psychologist, according to the Education Bureau of Hong Kong. In the 2016 Policy Address, the city government promised to progressively improve the ratio of educational psychologists-to-schools to 1:4 for public schools. However, that is still not enough. Cindy said the educational psychologist can only visit her school every two weeks.

Educational psychologists are not responsible for dealing with students' emotional problems, anyway. Their primary job is to assess students who may be in need of special educational services, such as those with autism, learning disabilities and communication disorders.

"If we got more counselors in residence, and if they could help us with students' emotional problems, we would feel more confident about handling the challenges," Cindy said.

A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups found that nearly 44 percent of teachers said they didn't have the expertise or techniques to deal with students' emotional outbursts.

"The results reflect the point that teachers need to be equipped with knowledge of psychology to identify and manage students' emotional problems," Quat said.

Only one psychology course is included in the undergraduate program for teacher training at the Education University of Hong Kong.

However, a former student at the university who is now a teacher at a primary school, said the psychology course contained several academic theories which proved worthless for handing tough kids. In reality, there is no recourse but to turn to more experienced teachers.

Last year, the Education University opened a professional mental health development program, including a three-day primary course and a five-day professional training course. However, because it only runs on weekdays few teachers can attend.

"I really want to take these courses, but the time is just not appropriate," Cindy said. At least one of Cindy's problems has been resolved. Andrew overcame his emotional problems and returned to school in September.

Now the object is to ensure that all the students, many of whom spend eight hours a day at school, are as fortunate.