Following is a question by Dr the Hon Elvin Lee and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Education, Dr Sze Chun-fai, in the Legislative Council today (October 21):

Question:

     It has been reported that the findings of a survey released by an organisation in August 2026 on "Research on Hong Kong Children's Subjective Well-being" revealed that, under the influence of an objective environment characterised by "high competition", "great emphasis on academic performance" and "high expectations of achievement", children's "subjective well-being" is often undermined by academic burden and invisible pressure from parents, and they may even use online games as a "digital escape" due to a lack of autonomy in real life, thereby arousing public concern about the affective development of children. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) as it is learnt that the Education Bureau has launched the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes (APASO) since 2003 and has collaborated with a local university in recent years to conduct a comprehensive review and revision of APASO for schools to conduct related student questionnaire surveys anonymously, so as to examine their students' development and needs in the affective and social domains, including their physical and mental health as well as school life, and the relevant data form part of the Key Performance Measures, whether the authorities have tracked and analysed the trends, changes and causes in respect of students' "affective development" in recent years, and whether such trends are consistent with the findings of the aforementioned survey; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(2) whether the authorities have, based on the data collected through APASO, made adjustments and provided support at the school level in respect of the curriculum arrangements, assessment methods and learning activities in response to the trends and changes in students' development in the affective domain, such as adjusting examination and assessment methods, as well as increasing classroom interactions and experiential learning; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3) whether the authorities have evaluated the effectiveness of their work in co-ordinating schools to strengthen collaboration with parents to help parents understand children's affective development needs and identify any invisible pressure that they may exert, through channels such as parent education, training or seminars; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     The Education Bureau (EDB) attaches great importance to students' affective development and their physical and psychological well-being. "Healthy Lifestyle" has long been one of the seven learning goals of primary and secondary education. Under the enhanced School Development and Accountability framework, the EDB has been encouraging schools to conduct school self‑evaluation (SSE) through the "Planning-Implementation-Evaluation" cycle, in a bid to assess the implementation and effectiveness of measures for promoting students' affective development and their physical and psychological well-being with a view to making corresponding refinements. To support schools in conducting evidence-based SSE, the EDB launched the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes (APASO) as an SSE tool in 2003. Through questionnaire surveys, schools are able to collect data to assess students' development and needs in the affective and social domains, as well as the effectiveness of the related measures implemented in schools so as to inform schools' planning. The EDB has commissioned a tertiary institution to comprehensively review and revise APASO. Subsequently, the secondary and primary editions of APASO (3rd Version) were launched in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 school years respectively. Concurrently, the norm data of APASO was also updated to provide schools with the latest territory-wide information on students' development in the affective and social domains for reference.

     Our consolidated reply to the question raised by Dr the Hon Elvin Lee is as follows:

(1) and (2) APASO has been in use in the school sector for many years and is widely adopted by schools. As one of the SSE tools, APASO has evolved to its third version. Given the varying school contexts, schools may make flexible use of the assessment items of APASO related to affective development according to their needs to gain a comprehensive understanding of students' development and needs across different domains. Since the questionnaire is completed by students on their own, the data collected may be influenced by various factors, such as the timing of the survey administration and response rate. Therefore, neither is it appropriate to assess students' affective and social performance solely on the basis of APASO data, nor is it appropriate to make simple comparisons between data obtained from different assessment tools. In general, schools currently conduct integrated analyses and exercise professional judgement by, for instance, comparing data among different student groups and examining changes in data across years, together with other qualitative and quantitative SSE information and data, such as teachers' observations, school-based questionnaires and students' reflections. This enables schools to gain an understanding of students' development and needs, including their affective development as well as physical and psychological well-being so as to formulate appropriate follow-up strategies.

     Students take part in the questionnaire surveys in an anonymous manner.  The assessment items include students' physical and psychological well-being and their school life, allowing them to express their personal experiences and perception across different domains. The information collected facilitates schools' annual SSE and their continuous refinements of development directions and priorities. On the basis of schools' SSE, the EDB validates the effectiveness of schools' work, including overall curriculum planning, assessment policies, student support measures through various modes of inspections. It also provides appropriate feedback on school development and students' needs with a view to promoting schools' continuous development and safeguarding students' well-being. In addition, the EDB will continue to review the applicability of the norm data through on-going professional research.

     In addition to providing schools with the above SSE tool to facilitate their understanding of students' development and needs in the affective and social domains, the EDB has all along been providing clear guidelines and recommended measures on the school assignment policy, emphasising that primary and secondary schools should adopt the principle of "quality rather than the quantity that matters" in the design and arrangement of homework, including the formulation of a school-based co‑ordination mechanism, taking into account students' balanced development and healthy lifestyles, and avoiding excessive homework. Schools should also keep under review the implementation of these measures, with a view to creating space for students. The EDB has also reminded schools to review their existing assessment policy, including adopting flexible and diversified assessment modes to replace traditional written tests and examinations, reducing the frequency of dictations, tests and examinations, or cancelling term examinations for individual year levels, planning the assessment arrangements for different key stages in a progressive manner, so as to reduce students' academic pressure and promote their physical and psychological well-being.

     Furthermore, the Values Education Curriculum Framework (2026) announced in April 2026 continues to identify health education (including promotion of physical and psychological well-being) as one of the major focuses that schools should continue to strengthen. It also sets out suggested expected learning outcomes for students in respective key learning stages, which include facing stress with a positive and optimistic attitude and alleviating it through appropriate means. Schools also support students in learning to face setbacks and stress with a positive attitude through activities within and beyond the classroom.

(3) Parents are key stakeholders in the school education process, playing crucial roles in supporting students' growth and learning as well as fostering their positive values and whole-person development. The Government has all along been adopting a multi-pronged approach to promote home-school co-operation and parent education. To enable parents to acquire the knowledge and skills for nurturing their children in a more systematic manner, the EDB has launched the Curriculum Frameworks on Parent Education applicable to kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools. It also organises courses and talks on parent education on an ongoing basis, covering different topics such as how to help children cope with stress and develop a healthy lifestyle, and exercising empathy to help children understand, express and regulate their emotions, thereby assisting parents in supporting the affective development of their children. The EDB runs the territory-wide Positive Parent Campaign every year to promote parent education through extensive and diversified channels like outreach programmes, competitions, parent-child activity days, with a view to fostering positive thinking among parents to help children grow up healthily. Through the one-stop parent education website Smart Parent Net (parent.edu.hk) and its social media platforms, the EDB disseminates information on supporting the physical and psychological development of children, including character development, parent-child relationship and emotional management of parents. Overall, parents participated actively in the activities and provided positive feedback. The EDB has conducted questionnaire surveys to collect participants' views. The results showed that most of them considered the activities useful in helping them enhance their understanding of relevant topics and acquire the knowledge and skills for nurturing their children.

Ends/Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Issued at HKT 16:35

NNNN