Preventing student suicide the whole community's duty

Updated: 2016-08-17 08:06

By Gary Harfitt(China Daily)

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Gary Harfitt stresses that causes of student suicide are complex and may take root at home or in schools, so we need to understand and listen to our young people more.

The recent progress report by the Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides has outlined some possible causes behind the 34 tragic suicide cases over the last three school years involving students aged from 10 to 20. The committee reported on medium and long-term strategies aimed at preventing any further tragedies. These measures include seminars and school-based talks on top of monetary awards to promote greater awareness of student mental health in schools. The committee's attention to the mental well-being of our youngsters is to be applauded, but when a Primary 6 student - just 10 years of age - decides that there is no hope in life, then our community needs to take a long, hard look at itself. Except it doesn't. Instead, responsibility is loaded onto a committee.

The causes of student suicide are complex and we need to consider every possible reason why so many young people are ready to give up their lives. Reasons might include character traits, family relations, peer relations, students' mental well-being, support for special needs, and school experiences. Children spend most of their time at home or in school. Sadly, it is these two contexts that can create the most pressure for our children when they should really be offering a protective and nurturing blanket to our youngsters. This is why a community response is vital.

Talk to any teacher or student and they will tell you that there is enormous stress in schools these days and much more than before. It has become obvious to me in my work that schools are often unhappy places these days. How has this come about? Part of the problem is the undoubted pressure on schools to achieve academic excellence. Too often schools are teaching the curriculum and not the students.

Ironically, curriculum reform was supposed to reduce student stress, primarily with the introduction of the single Diploma for Secondary Education in place of the old multiple exams to give teachers more time for teaching and students more time for learning. This hasn't happened. Schools can now bid for funding to promote "Retreat Days" aimed at giving students and teachers the space to reflect on their mental well-being. Isn't it better to build a school culture from within, one that promotes the same type of stress-free, positive learning environment advocated in the progress report - not just for one day but for every day? There are schools in Hong Kong that have created this environment, and we must learn from them.

However, this type of positive learning context runs contrary to everyday reality whereby schools are adding more and more blocks of assessment to the school year, increasing the number of quizzes, tests, dictations and timed essays across disciplines, and then bemoaning the lack of teaching time. For sure, schools are under pressure and parents are adding to that. They want their children to be "winning at the starting line", but what are the implications for this pressure-inducing ambition? Recently I shared a lift with a mother and daughter. The mother asked her child how much homework she had that evening and the young girl gleefully replied, "None." Her joy was short-lived as the mother informed her she would be setting "extra" homework instead.

Why couldn't the mother trust her child's schoolteacher's decision? Why don't schools work alongside parents so that there is a shared expectation of how their children are being taught? It's the students who are always caught in the middle. Is it any wonder that the two places where our youngsters spend most of their time are turning into pressure cookers? Something is very rotten and now is the time for officials, schools and parents to work together for the sake of our youngsters.

Let's try and understand and listen to our students more. We have the ability to help students with learning difficulties through careful screening in kindergarten and primary school. It's just not true that students can always overcome learning difficulties simply by working harder. Let's place more trust and responsibility in our youngsters. Can schools include more students on their many committees and councils? Can we see more buddy systems whereby students support peers and work together on assignments and projects? Can we reward students for good citizenship and social skills, not just academic achievements? Can we sometimes give them responsibility for arranging established school events to improve their decision-making and collaborative skills?

How we treat our youngsters in these crucial, formative years will shape them into the adults of tomorrow. We are told that our children prefer to live in a virtual world due to technology and social media, but step on a train or bus and everyone seems to be logged into another world. We all need to set an example and demonstrate that there are alternatives and there is a real community right here and now for them to embrace at home and in the wider society.

Our community should not rely on a well-intentioned committee to provide the type of positive, nurturing environment that youngsters so desperately need. Preventing student suicide is the responsibility of all of us.

Preventing student suicide the whole community's duty

(China Daily 08/17/2016 page12)