Education Secretary Eddie Ng has announced plans to increase the amount of educational psychologists in schools.
Speaking after a radio programme at RTHK this morning, Ng said, “I believe the shortage of professional education psychologists has been a universal problem.”
At the moment, Ng says that one government-provided psychologist is required to support between six to 10 schools. In the future, the government plans to have one psychologist for every four schools.
“In this year’s policy address, we already mentioned that we are setting a new goal, hopefully [in] particular for those schools [which] receive a lot more special education needs students,” Ng said.
A recent string of suicide-related messages posted to social media pages by university students has caused concern in non-profit agencies such as the Federation of Youth Groups, SCMP reports.
Federation of Youth Groups supervisor Hsu Siu-man said students who posted such messages on social media pages should be referred to mental healthcare professionals like counsellors or social workers, a sentiment echoed by Joyce Chow, chairwoman of the Samaritan Befrienders.
On Thursday, the Education Bureau announced emergency measures such as seminars, in-school counselling services and information packs, in an effort to combat the abnormally high number of student suicides this academic year.
However, psychiatric professor Dr. Lee Sing, from CUHK, says such “traditional” methods would not affect “the young generation”, whose chosen medium is “the mobile device”.
“Health talks and leaflets are passive ways… they can’t reach the most high-risk people, as they are either not turning up or [not] reading the materials,” Lee stressed.
Instead, Lee suggested that educational psychologists could engage with students using their chosen platforms by designing apps which utilise a simple 10-question format.
If you are experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts, please call the Samaritans‘ 24-hour hotline at 2896 0000 for help.
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