Education | Parents complain over Chinese character assignment

Parents of second grade kindergarten (K2) students complained after their children were taught to write the Chinese character “数” (a difficult Chinese character for “number” or “to count”). The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) alleges that the teaching outcome received the approval of both parents and the institution, Cheng Pou reported.
Parents had previously expressed their discontent on social media with a picture from an exercise book. The picture displayed the aforementioned character being written out several times by a student, thus illustrating the count or a number as per the meaning. “Isn’t this too much? It should be P2 level. Happy childhood,” one user commented. Nevertheless, the complaints were followed by comments in support of the poster.
In response, the head of the Department of Research and Educational Resources of DSEJ, Wong Kin Mou, expressed that writing “数” at K2 level prepares the students to move up into K3, where they start to learn to write down the subjects to be studied for homework, thereby learning self-care skills. “This ties with daily life,” said Wong.
When asked about whether the bureau felt that teaching complicated characters goes against the government’s plan to lighten pupil’s studyloads, Wong declined to answer.