Student Guidance and Discipline Services

In this rapidly changing era, children and teenagers not only face challenges from their studies and fast-paced living, but also adjust to changes in family structure and interpersonal relationship. In this regard, many schools have placed great effort on guidance and discipline work to facilitate the all-round development of students.  Effective student guidance and discipline services can increase the sense of belonging of students in schools, develop their problem-solving skills and help them make appropriate decisions as responsible persons.

The Guidance and Discipline Section (GDS) of the Education Bureau (EDB) forges partnerships with teachers, school administrators, guidance and discipline personnel, social workers and parents. Through collecting their experience and views, EDB share their good practices with other schools. The section also provides on-site support to schools so as to enhance the guidance and discipline work in schools. This helps schools create a caring environment where students’ positive behaviours, values, attitudes and interpersonal relationship can be cultivated. 

The Guidelines for Student Disciplines produced by GDS aims to provide guidelines for schools to devise their own discipline policy and measures.  The Guidelines advocate the Educative Approach to Discipline, outline the principles and policy on student discipline, organisation structure of a school discipline team, the roles and duties of the discipline master and mistress, and discipline strategies illustrated with case studies.  For details of the Guidelines, please visit:

http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/teacher/student-guidance-discipline-services/principles-guidelines/guidelines-on-student-discipline/index.html

The Whole School Approach to Guidance and Discipline was initiated by the EDB in 1990.  The aim is to help student develop self-respect, self-discipline, positive attitudes, sense of responsibility, respect for others, understanding of their personal growth and development etc.  All teaching staff should actively participate in student support in schools.  Last but not least, teachers should be aware of the uniqueness of individual students and be ready to support them according to their individual needs and abilities.  For details about the Whole School Approach to Guidance and Discipline, please contact the Guidance and Discipline Section of the Education Bureau.

To help schools adopt the Whole School Approach to Guidance and Discipline, the GDS has promoted a comprehensive model for the system development of student guidance and discipline work in schools.  The key to its successful implementation relies on the good collaboration between guidance and discipline personnel and all other school staff, and the school management’s effort to effectively integrate the guidance and discipline service with other sub-systems at school, such as Management and Organisation, Learning and Teaching, etc.

The GDS has also implemented measures to enhance the provision of guidance and discipline services in schools. These include professional consultation, school-based teacher training, experience sharing, seminars, talks, learning groups, workshops and training courses, regional network meetings as well as visits to schools. The GDS would offer different services to schools according to their needs.

Other on-going support services include certificate courses for guidance and discipline teachers, guidelines on student discipline, guidelines on comprehensive student guidance service and relevant resource materials.

The Guidance Digest serves as a good source of references for schools and teachers to obtain the latest update and topics.  Special topics such as student suicide and school bullying and related activities are also available.

The GDS will continue to support all primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong to improve the effectiveness of their guidance and discipline work.