The Hong Kong Christian Service (HKCS) on Tuesday said the city's primary schools are failing to provide enough support to children with special educational needs (SEN), with some kids finding it too stressful to even turn up for class.

HKCS said it recently interviewed 347 parents of SEN children and more than 34 percent said their kids faced ‘very high’ pressure to learn, while almost 20 percent said their children had refused to go to school after leaving kindergarten.

The group said it also surveyed 158 professionals, including principals, teachers, social workers and therapists, with more than 62 percent saying schools overemphasise academic performance and devote insufficient time to develop SEN children’s interpersonal and self-management skills.

Joyce To, HKCS' Unit Head of Bridge-Integrated Education Service, said SEN children face additional difficulties when they first start primary school.

“Primary school is a much more complex social situation and a much bigger place. SEN children may face more complex interactions with their classmates,” To said.

She added that there is inadequate teaching support compared to that provided in kindergartens.

“For kindergartens, there are one or more teachers in a class. They are taking care of [SEN students] for the whole day. But in primary school, the teachers are changing according to subjects, so they may not be the same teacher for the whole day to take care of [SEN children’s] needs at school.”

HKCS suggested primary schools should deploy more staff and offer additional social training for SEN pupils during the transition period, including holding emotion-sharing sessions and making use of role-playing, storytelling and drawing to explain real-life scenarios.