Schools urged not to make pupils with special educational needs repeat grades

Hong Kong schools should not require students with special educational needs or severe mental illness to repeat a grade, under revised education authorities’ guidance that warns the practice could worsen their adjustment difficulties.

The latest version of the Education Bureau’s School Administration Guide requires subsidised schools considering grade retention for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) to consult parents through a team of professionals, including an educational psychologist.

“Repeating a grade will only aggravate their social and emotional adjustment difficulties and increase mental health risks,” according to the guide, updated in August and brought to light on Tuesday.

The team should also include the school’s student support team and teachers, as well as psychiatrists where necessary, it said.

Schools should also provide support measures suited to the individual SEN student’s needs as an alternative to grade retention.

In its update, the bureau said schools should avoid repeated grade retention because it could reduce students’ interest in learning, damage their self-image, increase their risk of dropping out and heighten mental health risks.

When deciding whether a student should repeat a grade, schools should review the student’s overall circumstances, including academic performance, conduct, learning attitude, performance in extracurricular activities, other learning needs and the wishes of both the student and their parents.

“Schools should not regard grade repetition as the sole method to assist student learning, nor should it be used to punish students,” the guide said.

The bureau also urged schools not to arrange for a large number of students at a particular level to repeat a grade. Under the guide, a primary school’s overall repetition rate should not exceed 3 per cent of total enrolment, while the rate for secondary schools should not exceed 5 per cent.

Students may repeat a grade only once during their six years of primary school and may not repeat Primary 6.

Principals told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that grade retention was a serious decision requiring a holistic assessment of each student’s circumstances and suitability, adding that the guidelines urged educators to think “more cautiously” about the matter.

Lee Yi-ying, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, said the learning needs of students with special educational needs varied widely, and each potential case of grade retention should be assessed holistically according to the student’s needs and suitability.

“The guidelines are meant to ask us to be more cautious, especially for SEN students. Our concern is that more formulaic assessment [for retention] isn’t ideal,” Lee said.

The secondary school principal said she believed the guidelines did not impose a total ban on grade retention for students with special educational needs, but required schools to take additional steps to assess their circumstances more holistically.

Lee said that even under existing practices, students with and without special educational needs required counselling when repeating a grade, to ensure they did not see the measure as a sign of personal failure.

She added that grade retention could help some students who needed more time to master their learning, while others might benefit from dropping elective subjects or switching to another subject.

Langton Cheung Yung-pong, honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association, said the updated guidelines were a step in the right direction.

Cheung said his school already consulted a multidisciplinary team of professionals when deciding whether a student should repeat a grade.

“The new guidelines are a response to actual needs,” Cheung said.

For students with intellectual disabilities, he added, additional time was not the key to improving their grades, making grade repetition an unsuitable measure for them.