What an incredibly challenging academic year it has been for Hong Kong’s 900,000 schoolchildren.

With the Diploma of Secondary Education exams perhaps providing the only semblance of normalcy for students, 2019-20 can be best summed up by Charles Dickens in his A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

In a year during which academic learning has been abruptly disrupted, first by months of violent social unrest and then by the coronavirus pandemic, the loss to Hong Kong children’s learning opportunities has been incalculable. The protracted closure of schools has been particularly harsh on the less-fortunate, less-affluent and marginalized.

Faced with such multiple challenges, the Education Bureau has made various attempts to encourage schools and teachers to adopt “suspended classes without suspended learning” guidelines while also trying to provide practical support for children of various economic strata and demographics. The schools were requested to keep their premises open, with stringent health and hygiene measures in place. 

Given that schools have had the benefit of long-term relationships with and familiarization of the demographics of their students and their families, from the beginning, these educators should have been aware that hardware and internet accessibility are unaffordable luxuries for many

This is to help those children who would be unattended at home — owing to the nuclear family dynamics or families who cannot afford any help for their children. The teachers were advised to utilize a variety of e-learning platforms to help students continue with their educations. These simple practices, in conjunction with maintaining a monitoring and evaluation schedule of a child’s academic development, are what the bureau had envisaged for schools. 

Recent months have presented educators with a fantastic opportunity to explore and implement innovative pedagogical techniques to inspire the children to stay engaged with the learning process. This was also a call to those in the profession to rise to the challenge of ensuring their students’ uninterrupted learning outside the normal classroom for an undetermined period.

And then, two months after the school closure came the bureau’s “clear the air” circular dated April 2. This circular was the bureau’s attempt at clearing misunderstandings among the education sector and general public about the way home learning should be supported with e-learning modes during the class suspension. Apart from repeating some previous common sense guidelines, the bureau again appealed to the schools to make provisions for a more interactive and supportive system so learning materials, assignments, etc. can be regularly evaluated. The schools were implored to exhibit a higher degree of care and to take into account the obvious fact that less-affluent children will struggle with the internet and logistical issues and solutions. The appeal was for the schools to play a more realistic and supportive role in the educational development of less-fortunate children.

The fact that, two months after the school closure, the bureau has had to issue a “clear the air” circular is a most unfortunate and sad commentary on the state of affairs in our local schools. This is a clear indication that despite the best efforts of the Education Bureau, the educational institutions and the educators have left much to be desired in regard to guiding, supporting and inspiring children in continuing their education under such trying circumstances. The academic isolation of students and the unfortunate marginalization of the low-income children has been further accentuated by the twin crises Hong Kong has endured over the past months.

Given that schools have had the benefit of long-term relationships with and familiarization of the demographics of their students and their families, from the beginning, these educators should have been aware that hardware and internet accessibility are unaffordable luxuries for many. Let us not forget the aspect that while lumping students with homework of previously done topics or brand new subjects may constitute no more than ticking a box, it certainly does not help with the learning process. The fact is not all students have had the sincere engagement of educators and nor have they been invited to schools or been provided feedback about their homework. Without any such mentoring, how then are these children supposed to know where they are heading? Another aspect not to be overlooked is that surely local schools are aware that many parents have language barriers or are themselves marginally educated. They are therefore incapable of participating in their child’s educational journey. This situation probably calls for our teachers to go beyond their comfort zones. They need to reach out to these special group of disadvantaged children, thereby proving themselves to be true educators.

In short, these students have been overlooked and have endured “suspended classes with suspended learning”. We can only hope that in the coming summer holidays, such institutions will be motivated enough to make it up to these vulnerable children for their current deprivations.

The author is co-founder and CEO of a Hong Kong-registered charity. In that capacity, he oversees operations of two Education Bureau-registered education centers that provide educational support, with special emphasis on Chinese-language learning, to Hong Kong’s marginalized ethnic minority children.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.