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EDUCATION BUREAU CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM NO. 83/2020
From :
Ref.:
Secretary for Education
EDB(SDCT)2/ADM/125/1/4(12)
To: Supervisors and Heads of all
Government, Aided (including special schools), Caput and Direct Subsidy Scheme Secondary Schools
Date: 16 June 2020 c.c. Heads of Sections – for information
Caring for Students and Helping them Get Back on the Right Track Summary
This circular memorandum calls on schools to enhance the follow-up work and the relevant support at the school level for students who need guidance and discipline support.
Schools should nurture students’ positive values and positive thinking as well as formulate and implement a personalised follow-up plan for individual students in accordance with the circumstances.
Background
2. In view of the development of the social incidents since June 2019, the Education Bureau (EDB) has issued various guidelines and letters to school sponsoring bodies, schools, parents and students, explaining the stance of the Government and appealing to schools and parents to persuade students not to take part in any dangerous or unlawful activities. That said, according to the announcement of the Police in mid-May 2020, students arrested for suspected involvement in unlawful activities accounted for 40% of the total number of the cases. Recently, there have been more cases of prosecution and conviction. The situation is distressing and worrying. The students’ radical or even unlawful acts may be caused by a number of complicated reasons. Apart from educating knowledge, schools are also responsible to cultivate the virtues of students. For students who have deviations in behaviour or even values, schools have the responsibility to strengthen the work in assisting the students to develop positive thinking as well as good character and behaviour.
Schools’ Follow-up Support
3. The EDB issued a letter to schools on 20 December 2019, elucidating clearly that schools should state explicitly to students and parents that breach of school regulations will not be tolerated and schools will handle students’ misbehaviour based on the
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established guidance and discipline policies. Meanwhile, we also pointed out that we should never give up on students who had violated the law or even those who were convicted by the court. We should counsel them, adopt appropriate guidance and discipline measures, and bring them back to the right track. Schools with arrested or prosecuted students are advised to develop a long-term personalised guidance and discipline plan for each of the students concerned as early as possible, strengthening education on positive values, positive thinking as well as proper attitude in social communication, and to maintain close contact with their parents. Schools also need to take care of other students who may be affected by cases of students who are arrested or prosecuted, and help them manage their emotions and understand the incidents. If necessary, schools may seek advice from professional staff such as school social workers and school-based educational psychologists.
4. To formulate a personalised follow-up plan for students, schools are advised to understand the causes of their behaviours, formulate an action plan to support students through multi-disciplinary collaboration, seek the cooperation of parents to jointly help students tide over the difficult times and reflect on the influence of the students’
behaviours on themselves and others, thus assisting students to re-establish positive values and to reintegrate into school life for healthy development. In this regard, we encourage schools to make good use of the community resources, such as the Community Support Service Scheme provided by the Social Welfare Department through non-governmental organisations. For details of the Scheme, please refer to the website of the Social Welfare Department
(https://www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_young/sub_seryouthrisk/id_cssscheme).
5. Schools are also reminded that they need to handle students’ disciplinary problems in accordance with the established school-based guidance and discipline policies.
They should try to, as much as possible, adopt positive means to encourage students to rectify inappropriate behaviours, and should also take into account students’ self-esteem, individual differences and health conditions (including physical, psychological and mental health conditions) at the same time.
6. The judicial proceedings of individual law-breaking cases may be on-going.
While handling the cases relating to misbehaviour of individual students, schools must remind the responsible staff that when they formulate the support action plan and implement follow-up work, they should consider whether the details of the relevant plan will affect the on-going judicial proceedings, for instance, it is inappropriate to discuss the evidence or how to deal with the relevant litigation with the students concerned. However, schools can still conduct guidance and discipline work based on the values and virtues revealed by the students’ behaviours to help students establish positive values, empathy, respect for others, awareness of abiding the law, as well as the ability of distinguishing right from wrong and self-discipline.
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7. Regarding the impact of the social incidents on students, the EDB urges schools to strengthen the follow-up work and related support at the school level. Schools are invited to fill in the progress of various measures in the follow-up plan as attached in the Annex. Please feel free to adapt the form according to school-based circumstances.
Schools are requested to return the form to your respective District School Development Section by 30 September 2020 so as to facilitate our assessment of the overall situation and needs of schools, thus enabling us to provide appropriate support to schools.
Enquiries
8. We hope we can protect students jointly with schools and different sectors of the society and go through this difficult time with the students together, so that they can study in a safe and orderly environment and enjoy a caring school life. For enquiries, please contact your respective Senior School Development Officer.
KK LEE
for Secretary for Education
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Annex School Name:
Follow-up Support Plan of Schools regarding the Continuous Social Incidents
I. Policies and Organisation:
Yes (Please
)
Measures planning to be/ have been implemented (please describe briefly) 1. Foster a harmonious and caring
school culture, e.g. enhance the communication, acceptance and mutual-trust among teachers and students, enhance the sense of belonging
2. Review the policies and mechanism of early identification, support and referral
3. Review the mechanism and strategies of home-school cooperation
4. Review the procedures and
contingency measures of handling crisis
5. Others (please describe briefly):
II. Enhance positive, moral / personal growth education:
Measures planning to be/ have been implemented (please describe briefly) 1. Enhance positive education, e.g.
helping students learn to cope with negative emotion and experiences with a positive attitude; cultivate, nurture and develop personal strengths and potentials; bravely face the pressure and challenges in life
2. Strengthen moral / personal growth education, such as
(i) improving students’ self- management, social,
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solving and interpersonal skills, (ii) enhance students’ ability to
think from multiple angles, (iii) enhance students’ self-
awareness and set positive personal goals,
(iv) teach students to use social media in a proper way and distinguish true and false information
3. Others (please describe briefly):
III. Support Service:
Measures planning to be/ have been implemented (please describe briefly) [Please elaborate if community resources are used, e.g. Community Support Service
Scheme.]
1. Strengthen teacher training, enhance their ability to support students, such as emotional support, mediation/
conflict resolution skills, etc.
2. Provide support based on students’
individual needs, e.g. individual / group counselling
3. Parent education to facilitate the communication between parents and children
4. Others (please describe briefly):
IV. Support to students:
1. Our school has already formulated / will formulate personalised follow-up plans based on students’ individual needs, in order to strengthen the education of positive values, positive thinking, the attitude to get along with others, etc. The major strategies (e.g. providing emotional counselling by professionals, formulating goals and plans for behaviour improvement, participating in skills enhancement training, participating in social services, etc.) include:
__________________________________________________________________________
6 School Chop
Principal’s Signature:________________________________
Principal’s Name:___________________________________
Date:_____________________________________________
1 https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/teacher/prevention-of-student-
suicides/Community%20Resources%20and%20Helplines/Community%20Resources%20and%20Helplines_en.pdf
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. Our school has already deployed / will deploy school and external resources1, including:
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
