Vaccination or not dilemmas at the start of school

The HKSAR Government launched a “COVID-19 Vaccination Programme” for schools in June 2021 and the Education Bureau announced half-day face-to-face classes for the start of the 2021-2022 school year. This survey gathered parents’ and students’ views on vaccination while looking at the preparedness of students after almost two years of online learning on an unprecedented scale.

Key findings

Students’ views on going back to school l 76.7% hope face-to-face extracurricular activities will resume. l 55.9% worry about not being able to adapt to normal class arrangements. l 48.3% report greater stress during school suspensions.

Parents’ and students’ views on COVID-19 vaccination l 81.5% of parents are willing to get vaccinated and 50.3% had already been. l 64.6% of parents are willing to get their children vaccinated. l 44.9% of students are willing to get vaccinated.

Recommendations

l Hsu Siu-man, HKFYG coordinator “Schooling is more than academic learning and teaching and going to school involves face-to-face interaction between teachers and students. Most students missed the opportunity to socialize and interact with classmates in the past two years and this might cause some adjustment issues so attention needs to be paid to students who face difficulty adapting and support should be given to ensure a smooth resumption of school life.” l Jessica Ling, HKFYG Parent Support Network “Even though the vaccination programme was launched months ago, some parents may not have been confident enough to explain the need for vaccination to their children. If professional and medical experts had provided reliable, simple, easy to understand information it would have facilitated discussions at family level.” l Media Counselling Centre & Parent Support Network “To effectively control the pandemic and prevent future spread of the virus in the community, active participation and cooperation is essential. Public health education can play an important role by increasing health literacy and young people can contribute by reinforcing the message. We encourage parents and students to get vaccinated in order to create an 'immunity barrier' for society.”

Understand more about vaccination

Three videos in Chinese from HKFYG's M21

Online survey 5-15 July 2021

Respondents

1,079 secondary school students and 330 parents