The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably changed the landscape of education in Hong Kong. In the wake of the outbreak, face-to-face lessons in classrooms have been supplanted by long periods of home-based online lessons for primary and secondary students. Many schools, families, and students have struggled to cope with this new form of teaching and learning. There are also widespread concerns in Hong Kong society that student learning and wellbeing may have been adversely affected by the prolonged online learning and multiple waves of school suspension.  

To address the challenges effectively, The D. H. Chen Foundation (“the Foundation”) and the Centre for Information Technology in Education (“CITE”), under the Faculty of Education of The University of Hong Kong, believe there is a need of a more complete picture of students’ current learning and socioemotional wellbeing status, and how the sector responds to digital learning.   

The Foundation has, therefore, supported CITE to commence a study in 2022 to collect information about students’ digital learning, wellbeing and self-evaluation from stakeholders at different levels, including school leaders, teachers, parents and students themselves. The findings are expected to offer a comprehensive review of the action capacities in Hong Kong with regard to improving educational opportunities for primary and secondary students in the digital age. The study also provides suggestions and recommendation for different stakeholders including policymakers to formulate evidence-based action plans, which are practical on building capacity and resilience of students that facilitate their learning in the New Normal.  

As such, the Foundation and CITE envision the research could inform an impactful roadmap, paving the way forward for building an education ecosystem that is strategic for future needs.  

For more details of the research, please visit here.