"Education Inclusivity" Leaves Much to be Desired

Charlotte Leung (GSIS)

Being a Jewish Chinese student, I’ve heard pretty much any joke imaginable of how “hard-working and studious” I must be. Tat being said, it still came as a surprise when I was expected to attend school on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year and one of the most important days to my religion) simply to complete a math exam. Or that if I wasn’t present at a Saturday rehearsal, I wouldn’t be able to participate in the school play, despite Purim falling on the same day (Purim being a festive Jewish holiday that I had spent months prior helping to plan). The truth is, despite much progress in increasing social awareness, not enough schools acknowledge and accommodate the needs of their students, regardless of whether these needs stem from religion, learning disabilities or mental illness.

Schools in Hong Kong, with a few exceptions, are secular. Officially, there are 144 secondary schools that are explicitly Christian, but many international schools orient themselves to a Christian society. For example, school rules against seemingly harmless actions such as wearing hats indoors have roots in Christian etiquette and tradition. Incorporating religion into schooling systems isn’t problematic until students who don’t follow these religious views are treated differently, or more accurately, not differently. No school in Hong Kong would dare schedule a major exam on Easter, and if there was a Christian fasting period, you could be sure any sporting events would be postponed until the end of it. So it should only be natural that the same respect is given towards Jewish, Muslim or any other religiously affiliated holiday. It would be assumed that these arrangements would be made, but unfortunately, this is not the case as any deviation from what is considered the norm is punished with indifference.

Aside from religious differences, schools today tend to neglect the existence of learning disabilities. In the past, the possibility of a neurological issue was paid little to no attention. Thankfully, more research and focus on this area has led to more awareness and now, we are beginning to acknowledge that disabilities affect people of all kinds and ages. Yet the majority of schooling systems label these learning differences in students as laziness or a lack of effort. Many examination boards offer extra time and other exam accommodations for students with these exigencies, but not without a thorough report and assessment results which may be difficult and costly to obtain. It is also suspicious that those in wealthy areas are statistically more likely to require extra-time than those in impoverished areas. This also doesn’t change the fact that aside from taking medication, there isn’t much a student with a disorder can do to make the situation better and it isn’t fair of teachers or the school board to expect them to learn or perform in the same way as a neurotypical student. To simply pat ourselves on the back and look with poorly concealed pity by giving them extra times or a keyboard for the exact same tests is hypocrisy and ignorance: recognizing that these individuals are challenged yet refusing to allow them to be measured by anything other than the standards set by the norm.

Nowadays, schools that care more about results than students’ mental health is far from an overused film trope. The desire of many parents to send their children to band 1 schools has often resulted in excessive pressure on students to go beyond basic success. To attract students and funding, many schools prioritise grades and facilitate unhealthy or destructive behaviour, such as severe lack of sleep or eating unhealthily, all for the sake of retaining the school’s image and boosting the grade averages. Trying to achieve this utopian ideal of “perfection” has become an insatiable addiction marked by an overuse of quantifiable metrics and indifference towards attributes such as morality, character and personality that make up a good person. Countless studies and statistics show that students in this day and age are under more pressure than ever before to manage the impossible, thus it comes as no surprise that mental disorders such as anxiety and depression have become an epidemic in the vast majority of schools. Nevertheless, many schools continue treating mental health issues as if some foreign, abstract concept that doesn’t affect their students whatsoever, while others make token efforts without addressing the negative stigma that arises within the school and wider community. The detachment to such a relevant problem simply reinforces this culture of ignorance and apathy about the subject.

While there are too many complex issues at play for there to be an immediate, universal solution, the first step is for schools to acknowledge, value, and treat children not as statistics on a report, but as individuals. Individuals whose worth goes beyond what a dashboard of grade percentages, unproven personality tests and list of award certificates can show. Individuals who will shape the future but cannot do so if the things that make them different and special are eradicated or punished. Individuals who should have their dreams and hopes nourished and cherished, not ruthlessly ironed out until nothing but despair and a single-tracked mind to become yet another faceless cog in the economic machine is left. A school should be a place to encourage the natural human desire to learn and create as opposed to suppressing it with hostility and apathy.