Teachers in DSS schools under pressure from pushy parents
Reporters: Amy Leung Man Lok and Billy Leung Tsz Hong
Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools may offer smaller class sizes, superior facilities and valuable social networks for those students who manage to get in. But for some schoolteachers, working for a DSS entails pressure from pushy parents and a lack of job security.
Economics teacher Chan Tak got his first taste of parent power just three months after joining a DSS from an aided school in 2008.
Chan says a parent who claimed to be a university professor complained to him and his subject panel head about test papers Chan had set. “He used a red pen to circle questions he thought were incorrect and that he thought students might not understand,” says Chan. “For example, the word ‘undergraduate’ should be replaced with ‘university student’.”
After the complaint, all test papers set by Chan had to be reviewed by the panel head. “They like to complain about teachers, whether it is rational or not,” he says.
Such incidents are not confined to DSS schools. Chan, who spent a year teaching in an aided school before joining the DSS school, says whether a parent complains or not depends on their personality. Chan says there were many complaints from parents in the government aided sector as well.
“I used to teach in a non-DSS school in Tung Chung. One student forged a letter from his parents’ in order to skip sports’ day. When the teachers found out and complained to the parents, they rebuked us using foul language,” he recalls.
However, the threat of complaints, and even dismissal, is not equal among teachers. Chan says new teachers are often attacked by parents because parents assume they do not have adequate qualifications or experience. They also lack established personal networks, which may mean fewer colleagues are willing to support them in the face of negative comments.
There may be an added dimension at DSS schools because schools are afraid to offend fee-paying parents.
During the two years he taught at his first DSS school, Chan received six complaints from parents. The school principal, who once hinted he should resign for allegedly violating the school language policy by teaching in Chinese, finally fired him due to pressure from parents. Chan now teaches at another DSS secondary school in Kowloon.
Chan refuses to buckle under criticism, “I won’t betray my beliefs just to please parents and principals,” he says firmly. “Some principals want their teachers to provide good services (to parents). A good teacher in their eyes should be similar to an obedient student who listens to their orders.”
Although Chan Tak says teachers have to put up with parental criticism in both DSS and aided schools, parents of children at DSS schools tend to have advantages that can make them more demanding, for better or worse.
Dennis Shek, a teacher in a DSS school in Kowloon says parents of children at DSS schools can afford to pay higher tuition fees. Their better socio-economic background means there is greater parent participation at DSS schools. “They have certain knowledge and actively collaborate with the school. Sometimes they question whether teachers’ actions are the best way of doing things or not,” he says.
Shek cites an example of over-protective parents. “A student was absent from an exam and according to the rules, he should have scored zero marks. However, the parent requested that the school give her son marks, ignoring the rules. It is actually instilling wrong values in the students.”
Shek suggests that when parents make unreasonable demands or oppose teachers’ actions or ideas, teachers should try to explain how those actions and ideas can benefit students. Often this means staff at the school need to show a united front.“Parents want to get what they want but when they see the school hierarchy, including teachers and senior heads hold the same view, they can usually be persuaded (to come around).”
Parents and students at DSS schools may also have higher expectations, given that they have probably undergone a long selection process before entering a DSS school. “When the school fails to live up to their expectation, the parents voice their opinion,” Shek says.
Handling complaints or listening to the opinions of parents can take up much of teachers’ or even a principal’s time. Shek says it takes between 30 minutes and an hour to listen to parents’ complaints and to explain the school’s position to them. “As parents don’t have much time to spend on their children, they will find the most effective way to solve problems. That is to approach the principal,” Shek says.
In recent years, the term “monster parents”, which originated in Japan, has been used to describe aggressively over-protective parents who constantly find fault with teachers and schools. But Monica Yau Ng Lai-tuen, professional consultant in the Department of Social Work of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), believes the caricature is unfair to parents.
“We should step into their shoes to understand their thinking,” says Yau. “They worry about their children and hope they can prepare them for future challenges.”
While parents may want their children to become more independent, the culture encouraging parent, rather than student participation prevails.
Yau says parents are encouraged to give opinions and help solve their children’s problems from kindergarten onwards and even at secondary school. She believes that schools should tell parents, clearly, even before their children enter the school, that children need to learn how to solve problems themselves. “Inappropriate parent participation could end up as interference,” she says.
Dwight Tse Cheuk-kit, who graduated from St. Paul Co-Educational College, says his school would not deliberately please parents and students. The university freshman says parent participation may not be the best way to handle students’ problems. “After all, the information the parents get just comes second-hand,” he says.
“For instance, when a student is dissatisfied with some arrangements, the parent only gets information from their child before taking the issue to the teachers. This is indirect,”
He suggests that the student, being the one directly affected, should be responsible for and capable of handling problems themselves.
In a sector that is seen as increasingly adopting the practices and principles of the market, one former principal of a DSS school says parents are not and should not be treated as customers. Samuel Li Lok-shing, the former head of ECF Saint Too Canaan College, describes the relationship between parents and schools as a partnership.
When dealing with parents’ complaints, it is important to let the parents know the school is looking for solutions to their children’s problems. “Teachers are the professionals in education. It is important to let parents understand teachers have a belief to help the students and respond to their problems,” Li says.
During his time as a principal, he somtimes faced direct complaints from parents but Li always chose to take a step back instead.
“When parents approached me directly, I would encourage them to talk to the teacher. Usually they would understand the teachers’ standpoint after communication. I would also guarantee to them that teachers would not pick on their children and let them know we are working together for the good of their children.”
Good parent-teacher relations depend on mutual trust and shared beliefs. In many schools, Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) have been established to enhance cooperation.
Billy Hui Kwok-wai, the chairperson of the PTA of Heung To Middle School, a DSS school, believes that for a school to achieve its goals, there must be a good parent-teacher relationship. However, he thinks the parents’ role should be a secondary one.
“Parents’ participation in the school is confined to six to seven years but the amount of time and effort put into the school by its principal and teachers is much more than that,” he says.
Hui goes further by suggesting that, rather than trying to change a school’s policy, parents should choose schools that share their core values.
Monica Yau, from CUHK’s Department of Social Work says parents should not get involved in areas that can be better handled by teachers.
She believes that when parents intervene in how teachers deliver knowledge, it exerts unnecessary pressure on teachers and leads to physical and psychological strain. Instead, parents should only stand up for their children’s rights in extreme cases, like when students are ill-treated or subjected to verbal abuse.
Most importantly, Yau says the participation of students should be increased. “The school should set the boundary, which is to decide which issues should be decided by students,” she suggests. Once students are given the opportunity to deal with their own problems, parents will see that their children are able to handle them.
Yau also says it is important that teachers do not take criticisms and attacks personally. “Some of the teachers are anxious because they attribute everything to their own abilities,” she says. They worry about negative consequences when they fail to handle parents’ requests properly.
“Young and new teachers, in particular, may find it tedious to listen to advice and complaints from senior teachers and parents,” she says.
Still, parents are not the only source of anxiety for teachers. The school system plays a vital role in easing the pressure on teachers. “It depends on whether or not the school provides a sound system to support teachers in handling complaints,” Yau says.
Chan Tak, the DSS school teacher who was fired from his first job in a DSS school in 2010, questions just how much schools can help teachers facing parents’ complaints. When parents have become customers of education services, DSS schools tend to favour parents and fail to understand the reasons behind teachers’ actions.
“I feel sad. Many of the things I do are for the good of students but people feel I’m torturing them. I feel like I’m being framed,” he says.
