EdUHK & CNOPE survey: teachers' worries on strained SEN resources

A survey by the Education University of Hong Kong and the Council of Non-profit Making Organisations for Pre-primary Education shows nearly 90% of teachers are concerned about insufficient resources for implementing inclusive education, while only 16% believe the current teacher-student ratio is sufficient to effectively implement inclusive education.

The survey began in March and interviewed around 480 teachers.

Over 85% of the teachers surveyed said their stress mainly comes from increased workloads, difficulty in allocating attention to relevant students and manpower crunch.

About 60% worry that including pre-primary pupils with special educational needs will affect the quality of education at this stage.

They recommend the government establish a continuous professional training mechanism and set up permanent SEN coordinators in kindergartens to better manage resources to ease the burdens on frontline teachers.