Hong Kong school bullying cases rise 32% to 496
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong’s Education Bureau says public primary and secondary schools handled an average of 496 bullying cases a year between the 2022-23 and 2024-25 school years, compared with an annual average of 377 from 2019-20 to 2021-22. The bureau said the more recent yearly figures were generally stable, but cautioned that direct comparison with the pandemic-era period may be inappropriate because some classes were held online during Covid-19
Key Points
- The Education Bureau said schools handled an average of 496 bullying and cyberbullying cases yearly from 2022-23 to 2024-25, up 32 per cent
- For 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, the bureau previously told lawmakers there were 411, 306 and 413 cases respectively, averaging 377
- The figures came from the bureau’s annual questionnaire surveys on guidance and discipline cases in Hong Kong schools
- The bureau did not provide a year-by-year breakdown for 2022-25 and said data for the current school year was still being compiled
- A youth group said higher mental health awareness may have encouraged reporting, but some students still struggle to tell jokes from bullying
Why It Matters
The figures suggest schools are dealing with a persistently elevated level of bullying reports after the pandemic period, even if the bureau says the recent annual totals have been broadly steady. They also add to concern after the OECD’s latest PISA study found 22.2 per cent of Hong Kong 15-year-olds reported experiencing some form of bullying at least a few times a month, above the OECD average of 19.6 per cent