論當代教育制度的反思： 聚焦香港教育制度造成的心理健康問題

亨利·博索萊伊

論當代教育制度的反思：聚焦香港教育制度造成的心理健康問題
原文發佈於大清帝國論壇《【嘉七恩科殿試：題組三、論述寫作】論當代教育制度的反思》

Education has always been an essential ring in children’s development stages, but education may not always be positive for all. Between the year 2006 and 2015, 120 schoolchildren in Hong Kong committed suicide, cast a shocking blow to society. At the same time, the incidents uncovered and raised great concerns about the negative effects that the city’s education system brought to the mental health of both students and teachers. This essay attempts to identify the causes and solutions to the psychological health issues underlying the education system, and the actions made by various stakeholders.

One of the many discussed mental well-being problems that Hong Kong schoolchildren face is the huge amount of stress they have. These stresses most likely originated from the emphasis on academic results in the education system and can be generally divided from 3 sources – peers, parents, and teachers. The excellence that peers, including classmates and friends, achieved will be creating peer pressure on the child, giving stress especially to those that may not perform as well as their peers academically. As children are comparatively more innocent, they may easily compare themselves with peers of a similar age. Children tend to speak the truth without considering others’ emotional feelings, and thus may indirectly tease those who did not receive a good academic result, hurting others unintentionally and causing even larger stress. On the other hand, teachers and parents, as individuals that children respect and imitate, may also cause stress to them. With the high expectations from their teachers and parents, especially when they are given an aspiration that is unrealistic and unlikely to be achievable, children may be stressed as they cannot reach the expectations put on themselves. Murayama, Pekrun and Suzuki (2016) has investigated the overaspiration from parents and proved that “excessively high parental aspiration that exceeds realistic expectations of the children’s performance may lead to excessive pressure” (p.767). This in fact is a cycle and will be unlimitedly creating stress and pressure on the schoolchildren.

Another source of stress is the uncertainty of their future, for instance, further studies and career. This kind of stress is more common among senior secondary and university students, in which students become more mature and would have to plan for themselves independently. Especially when under the COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kong students and even those around the globe feel uncertainty in their future. As they do not have a clear goal, these students blindly follow directions that others gave, and which may not be the correct way for them to work on. 57% of the respondents to a survey reveals that they have no idea for their future career after graduation from college (Eccles, et al., 2016), and losing their way in the fog makes the future path unclear to the students. The fear of the unknowns towards their future will then develop, and at last turn into stress.

When students are affected by stress for a certain period of time, anxiety, depression, and other similar mental diseases may develop. These illnesses are alarming psychological problems that are becoming more and more common in school settings. One among four secondary students suffer from anxiety, while 51.5% of students that filled in the survey in 2018 has the tendency to have different levels of depression, and up to about 4% among Hong Kong secondary students are estimated to have severe depression problems that require doctoral advice (Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service, 2018). The situation is not only caused by the aforementioned stress, but also other issues like school bullying. As a common issue, bullying is not something that numbers has just risen in recent years, but a long-lasting problem in schools. Students that do not conform to social groups will be isolated, and as children are not that aware of the mental harm they do to these bullied students, the act will continue and even develop from name-calling or simply isolation into severe problems like verbal assault and violence. If the victim starts to develop symptoms of depression, it is less likely for them to report bullying cases to teachers, social workers, or their parents, and keeping the bullying situation back makes it more difficult for adults to be aware of such bullying problems.

A new idea namely “academic burnout” has been investigated and discussed during the past few years. It has raised some concerns that Hong Kong students may face such a similar situation. The term “burnout” refers to, according to Lin and Huang (2014), “a state of emotional exhaustion, a tendency toward depersonalization, and a feeling of low personal accomplishment”, and academic burnout is undeniably a mental health issue that affects the knowledge learning of its victims. Academic burnout would make students lose motivation in learning and feel exhausted, victims deny their own achievement and perform badly when compared to previous periods. With the exam-oriented education system, Hong Kong students face course work and exercises from different subjects and could be overload typically when their parents anticipate them to perform well academically, this would indirectly cause academic burnout when children feel exhaustion and tiredness when facing these works.

In fact, teachers may be one of the causes of students’ mental health issues, but we should be aware that they may also be victims of mental health issues in school settings. Jerrim, Sims, Taylor and Allen (2021) investigated the mental health of British schoolteachers and discovered that around 5% of them who took the survey has admitted a long-lasting mental health problem including depression and anxiety. With an education system that created even more workload for teachers, it would be easy to believe and presume that the numbers in Hong Kong would be much higher. Students expect teachers to be professional and at the same time hold the role of their life mentor, parents see teachers as their children’s role model. As a teacher, they are not only responsible for lesson work, but are also required to handle student and parent enquiries, and even handle administrative work. Facing three-sided burdens from students, parents and colleagues, teachers do bear a huge responsibility and expectation from the three groups of individuals. On the other hand, Hong Kong teachers have been facing negative portrayal since the political movements in 2019, while every single sentence they say would be monitored and interpreted by students and parents if they do not show neutral enough even after class or on social networking sites. This has created an inappropriate atmosphere for the educators and mental health issues would be developed in the fear that they would be discharged or accused of spreading political issues in schools. The heavy workload and fear under the city’s political atmosphere would catalyse mental health problems among teachers.

This condition on the spread of mental health problems among students and teachers has been a widely concerned topic in the society of Hong Kong. Stakeholders of the issues have been working the effort in providing corresponding prevention measures and policies to improve these psychological health issues. As the issue is affecting hundreds of students in the city, the government, schools, teachers, and parents would have to work together as one so that the problem could be tackled.

The Hong Kong government is one of the most essential stakeholders in the issue to provide support to schools and students. The administration could provide funding support in psychological counselling at the campus so that to provide suitable mental health support to students in need. Similar to the “One School Social Worker for Each School” scheme established, but improvement should be made to increase the number of social workers and even educational psychologists that work exclusively for a certain school. The government should also provide resources to schools on the mental health problems of students, including long-term courses and training on the assistance of increasing students’ hope on their future academic study or career, or regular talks and activities to students on committing suicide and raise awareness among schoolchildren on the mental health of themselves and their peers. Resources and funding could be given to non-governmental organisations to provide life-planning activities and courses, aiming to assist teenagers to plan their future path, to set up a positive goal to follow on and to identify a suitable career they would like to work on in the future, removing the uncertainties on their road.

Among the stakeholders, it would be the most important for schools and teachers to participate in the prevention and discovery of students’ mental health problems. As teachers would be the individual that is in touch with the students for the most time in a school day, it would be essential for them to identify mental health issues from the students’ behaviour or personality changes. According to a handbook from Education Bureau et al. (2017), typical characteristics of students who suffer from mental disorders like depression includes a speedily declined academic result, incapability to focus on schoolwork, refusion to social relationships. If students show the above symptoms, teachers should talk to them or refer the student to social workers for further counselling. The school should also build a good parent-teacher relationship, in which teachers could contact parents from time to time to understand how students perform in time outside school and encourage parents to also be aware of students’ emotional health, at the same time inform parents on students’ academic and non-academic performance at school in a regular basis so that to help them understand more about the child. Schools can also hold talks for parents on handling emotions and anticipation and the prevention of overaspiration to their children so that to allow parents to understand the correct method to educate their children.

For parents, as the closest individuals to children themselves, should bear the responsibility for their children’s psychological health problems. Parents would have to acknowledge the limits of their own children and do not put overaspiration onto them. Children should be given a certain level of freedom academically and pressure would have to be added moderately. They should also prevent punishment, no matter it is of a verbal and non-verbal method, but instead, replace them with encouragement and praise for what they did well. This allows children to develop positive psychology and relieve the stress they have academically. Parents should also act their role as a listener to ease out their emotions and encourage their children to share what happened at school, this helps the discovery of possible bullying cases and that parents could find out and discuss the children’s negative emotions. Stuffing the schedule for their children with tutorial classes and extra-curricular activities would not help the children to relax but bring even more pressure, while adequate parent-child activity outdoors would greatly help prevent depression.

To conclude the essay, it would be crucial to alarm society about the mental health problems in school settings, of our next generation and of the educators, ranging from stress, depression to severe mental illnesses. Stakeholders like the administration, schools, teachers, and parents would have to try their best in assisting students in the improvement of emotional health. It would not be happy for anyone to see Hong Kong repeat the same mistakes made a few years ago, losing the lives of the future pillars of our society.

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中文譯本
注：本文由 DeepL 人工智能協助翻譯，並經過人工潤色，部分內容或跟英文原文內容稍有出入。
教育一直是兒童成長階段中不可或缺的一環，但教育不一定會為所有人都帶來正面的影響。從 2006 年到 2015 年，香港共有一百二十名學童自殺，給社會帶來了沉重的打擊（Ting，2019）。同時，這些事件也揭露並引發了人們對香港教育制度給師生心理健康帶來的負面影響的高度關注。這篇文章試圖找出教育制度所隱藏的心理健康問題的成因和解決方案，以及各利益相關方就此所採取的行動。

香港學童所面臨的眾多心理健康問題之一，是他們所承受的巨大壓力。這些壓力很可能源於教育制度對學業成績的重視，一般可包括三個不同的壓力來源：同學、家長和老師。朋輩（包括同學和朋友）取得的優異成績會給兒童造成朋輩壓力，尤其是那些學習成績不如同齡人的兒童。由於兒童相對來說比較天真，他們很容易將自己與年齡相仿的同伴進行比較。孩子們往往不會注意到他人的情緒感受，直接說出事實，因此可能會間接地嘲笑了那些學習成績不理想的同學，無意中傷害了他人，對對方造成更大的壓力。另一方面，老師和家長作為孩子們尊敬和模仿的對象，也會給孩子們帶來壓力。在老師和家長的殷切寄望下，尤其是當他們被賦予一個不切實際或不可能實現的期望時，孩子們可能會因為無法達到對自己的期望而產生壓力。Murayama、Pekrun 和 Suzuki（2016）對父母的過高期望進行了調查，證明「父母對子女的期望過高，超過了對子女表現的現實期望，可能會導致壓力過大」（第767頁）。這其實是一個迴圈，會重複地給學童造成壓力和緊張。

壓力的另一個來源是對於升學和職業生涯等未來方向的不確定性。這種壓力在高中生和大學生中更為常見，因為在高中和大學階段，學生開始步入獨立，需要自行規劃自己的未來。特別是在 2019 冠狀病毒病全球大流行的情況下，香港乃至全球的學生都感到前途茫茫。由於沒有明確的目標，這些學生可能會盲目聽從別人的指示，但這卻未必是適合他們的努力方向。一項調查顯示，百分之五十七的受訪者對於自己大學畢業後的職業生涯毫無頭緒（Eccles 等，2016），在迷霧中迷失方向囘使學生們對未來的道路不甚瞭解，對未知未來的恐懼會隨之產生，並最終轉化為一種壓力。

當學生受到一定時間的壓力影響時，可能會產生焦慮、抑鬱和其他心理疾病。這些疾病是令人擔憂的心理問題，且在求學階段的學生群體中越來越常見。每四名香港中學生中就有一名患有焦慮症，而在 2018 年填寫調查問卷的學生中，有約百分之五十一的學生有不同程度的抑鬱傾向，而在香港中學生中，估計有高達約百分之四的學生有嚴重的抑鬱問題，需要尋求醫療協助和輔導（浸信會愛羣社會服務處，2018）。造成這種情況的原因不僅僅是前述的各類壓力，還有校園欺淩等其他問題。作為一個常見議題，校園欺淩並不是近幾年才興起的，而是一個長期存在於校園之中的問題。部分學生可能會因不能融入其他學生的社交群體而被孤立，而由於學生可能並沒有意識到他們對受欺淩學生所造成的精神傷害，因此這種行為會持續一段時間，甚至從辱罵或簡單的孤立，發展成言語攻擊和肢體暴力等嚴重問題。如果受害者開始出現抑鬱症狀，他們就更不可能向老師、社工或父母報告欺淩事件，而隱瞞欺淩情況也會使成年人更難意識到此類欺淩問題。

在過去幾年中，人們對「學業倦怠」這一新概念進行了研究和討論。這一個概念也引起了一些關注，擔心香港學生也會面臨類似情況。根據 Lin 和 Huang（2014）的定義，「學業倦怠」是指「一種情緒衰竭、人格解體和個人成就感低落的狀態」，而學業倦怠無疑是一種影響受害者知識學習的心理健康問題。學業倦怠會使學生失去學習動力，感到精疲力竭。受害者會否認自己的成就，表現會比以前變差。在以「一試定生死」的教育制度下，香港學生經常要面對不同科目的課業和練習，當家長寄望他們在學業上有好成績時，他們通常會感到負擔過重，當孩子面對這些工作時感到疲憊和倦怠時，便會間接導致學業倦怠。

事實上，教師可能是造成學生心理健康問題的原因之一，但我們也應該意識到，教師同時也可能是學校環境中心理健康問題的受害者。Jerrim 等（2021）對英國學校教師的心理健康進行了調查，發現在接受調查的教師中，約有百分之五的人承認自己有包括抑鬱和焦慮症等長期的心理健康問題。由於香港的教育制度給教師帶來了更大的工作量，我們可以推測香港的相關統計數字只會比英國更高。學生期望教師需要保持專業，同時也要擔任他們的人生導師，而家長則視教師為子女的榜樣。作為教師，他們不單要負責課業，還要處理學生和家長的查詢，甚至行政工作。面對學生、家長和同僚的三重重擔，教師確實肩負了巨大的責任和期望。另一方面，自2019年香港政治運動以來，香港教師一直被貼上負面標籤，即使在課後或社交網站上，如果表現得不夠中立，他們說的每一句話都會被學生和家長監督及解讀。這給香港的教育工作者造成了一種不適當的氛圍，他們也會因害怕被開除或被指控在學校傳播政治思想而產生心理健康問題。繁重的工作量和城市政治氛圍下的恐懼會催化教師的心理健康問題。

師生心理健康問題的惡化一直是香港社會廣泛關注的話題。相關各方一直在努力提供相應的預防措施和政策，以改善這些心理健康問題。由於這問題影響全港數以百計的學生，政府、學校、教師和家長必須齊心協力一同解決。

香港政府是為學校和學生提供支持的最重要持份者之一。政府部門可撥款支持校園心理輔導計劃，為有需要的學生提供合適的心理健康支援。政府可在「一校一社工」計劃上加以改進，增加專門為某所學校服務的社工甚至教育心理學家的數量。政府也應為學校提供有關學生心理健康問題的資源，包括長期的課程和培訓，幫助學生增加對未來學業或職業的希望，並定期為學生舉辦有關防止自殺的講座和活動，提高學童對自己和同儕心理健康的關注。政府可向非政府機構提供資源和資助，協助他們開辦生涯規劃活動和課程，幫助青少年規劃未來的道路，樹立積極的奮鬥目標，找到適合自己的職業，消除人生道路上的不確定性。

在各持份者中，最重要的是學校和教師參與預防和發現學生的心理健康問題。由於教師是在校期間與學生接觸時間最長的人，因此他們有必要從學生的行為或性格變化中嘗試發現他們的心理健康問題。根據教育局等（2017）的手冊，患有抑鬱症等精神障礙的學生的典型特徵包括學習成績迅速下降、無法專注於學校作業、拒絕社交關係等。如果學生出現上述症狀，教師應及時與學生溝通，或將學生轉介給社工做進一步輔導。學校亦應與家長建立良好的師生關係，教師可不時聯絡家長，瞭解學生在校外的表現，並鼓勵家長關注學生的情緒健康，同時定期向家長匯報學生在校內的學業及非學業表現，讓家長更瞭解子女。學校還可以為家長舉辦講座，向家長介紹如何處理孩子的情緒和期望，以及如何防止對孩子施加過度的期盼，讓家長了解教育孩子的正確方法。

父母作為孩子最親近的人，也應該對孩子的心理健康問題負起責任。家長要認識到自己孩子的長處與短處，不要對他們期望過高。在學業上應給予孩子一定的自由，適度增加壓力。家長還應該防止對孩子施加懲罰，不管是口頭的還是非口頭的，而是用鼓勵和表揚來代替懲罰。這樣可以培養孩子的積極心理，緩解他們在學業上的壓力。家長還應該扮演傾聽者的角色，緩解孩子的情緒，鼓勵孩子分享在學校發生的事情，這有助於發現可能的欺淩事件，家長也可以發現並討論孩子的負面情緒。為子女安排過多的補習班和課外活動，不僅無助於子女放鬆，反而會給他們帶來更大的壓力，而適當的親子戶外活動則對預防抑鬱症大有裨益。

在文章的最後，我們必須提醒社會關注學校環境中的心理健康問題，以及我們的下一代和教育工作者的心理健康問題，包括壓力、抑鬱和嚴重的心理疾病。政府、學校、教師和家長等利益相關者都必須盡力幫助學生改善情緒健康。如果香港重蹈幾年前的覆轍，失去未來的社會棟樑，實在令人唏噓。

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參考資料

• Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service. (2018, September 2). 逾半中學生呈抑鬱 7 成對學業感厭煩 青少年比成年人對前景更沒希望 [More than half of the secondary students shows signs of depression. 70% feels annoyed with academics. Teenagers have less hope for their future than adults.]. https://www.bokss.org.hk/content ... E6%9F%A52018pdf.pdf
• Eccles, H., Murphy, R., & Thomas, A. (2016, April). The Think Future Study. Think Future. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/ ... nk-future-study.pdf
• Education Bureau, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Community Support Project, Early Assessment Service for Young People with Early Psychosis Programme, & Hospital Authority. (2017). Understanding and Supporting Students with Mental Illness - Teacher’s Resource Handbook. https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachmen ... dbook_on_MI_Eng.pdf
• Jerrim, J., Sims, S., Taylor, H., & Allen, R. (2021). Has the mental health and wellbeing of teachers in England changed over time? New evidence from three datasets. Oxford Review of Education, 1-21.      
• Lin, S. H., & Huang, Y. C. (2014). Life stress and academic burnout. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(1), 77-90.
• Murayama, K., Pekrun, R., Suzuki, M., Marsh, H. W., & Lichtenfeld, S. (2016). Don’t aim too high for your kids: Parental overaspiration undermines students’ learning in mathematics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(5), 766.
• Ting, V. (2019). Hong Kong children overwhelmed by academic pressure, with suicide accounting for a third of young unnatural deaths, government review of Coroner’s Court cases reveals. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-k ... ic-pressure-suicide