Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my opinion about the small-class teaching policy that is the hot topic discussed by the public.
Firstly, I think small-class teaching will increase the burden of teachers. Since students are separated in more classes, the school should employ more teachers for teaching the extra classes. That means the number of teachers in the same school may probably increase too. Therefore, there will be more coordination and meetings between the teachers. It will just let the work of teaching become more complicated. The pressure of teachers is not easy to be relieved.
Secondly, students have fewer opportunities to learn from different people in small classes. For example, a 20-student class has a group discussion and each group may have about 4 people. It can be divided into five groups only. In a normal class, the number of groups is double because it has more students in the class. It means students can have more chance to listen the other presentation. Everyone has experienced various things, so students can learn or know different and special things from the others. Small-class teaching will definitely limit the social circle of students. They have less chance to understand others.
Lastly, small-class teaching requires a large amount of resources. Undeniably, education is very important and government should invest money in this aspect. However, we should also consider the distribution of our society’s resources. Small-class teaching requires more teachers and more classrooms. The expenditure of enforcing this policy is considerable. In Hong Kong society, there are many social problems waiting to be solved. The government should distribute the public resources carefully. For improving the quality of Hong Kong’s education, the government should improve the curriculum and encourage teachers to keep on developing their professionalism. Small-class teaching is not an economical way to improve the quality of education.
In conclusion, small-class teaching cannot benefit teachers, students and the government. It is not necessary in our society. Therefore, this proposal should not be adopted.