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Pursuit of academic excellence in Hong Kong shouldn’t be a deadly race

I’m still reeling from last week’s tragedy in Hong Kong: a mother and her 12-year-old daughter lost their lives to suicide within hours of each…

By Samantha Johnson / June 15, 2026
I’m still reeling from last week’s tragedy in Hong Kong: a mother and her 12-year-old daughter lost their lives to suicide within hours of each other reportedly following an argument about “education problems”.

While the causes of suicide are complex, the incident should prompt reflection within the education system. For years, many have tried to point out the impact academic pressure without adequate support has on students’ mental health. We have also noted the effect on teachers and parents. We have tried to cite statistics in the hope that the government would address the issue.

Our education system seems to have become what has recently been described as a “zero-sum” game.

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Students are trained to be exam-takers. In such a system, only results matter. This creates an uncaring culture that degrades the integrity of the learning process. Nurturing children to thrive is inefficient in this system. Test-taking skills take precedence. So we start them young with cramming and extreme rote-learning. It’s survival of the fittest test-takers.

If we are looking to the future, where adaptability, collaboration and creativity will be more important, we had better re-examine what we are teaching our overachieving test-scorers to be.

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The current ecosystem creates stress across the board – for teachers, students and parents. Hopes and dreams are seemingly only for those who can beat everyone else in exams.

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