5D Hui Cheuk Ying Isolde
An Article – Sending Children to Other Country to Complete Their Schooling
Studying Overseas – A Sweet Dream or a Nightmare?
According to a survey, more and more parents send their child overseas to complete their schooling. Many parents think that this will be a great experience to their children; however, this might turn out to be a nightmare to their beloved children.
According to interviews with a number of parents, most parents would like to send their children overseas to broaden their horizons, to make them more mature and independent. Studying overseas can let students experience lots of unique things such as the differences in various cultures, the heritage and different lifestyles. This can help students know more about the world, not to be confined in Hong Kong. When students step on the land of a foreign country, they have to solve every problem by themselves. Although students may live with a host family, they still have to tackle their own problems as simple as doing laundry. After all, students can learn from their mistakes and become more mature and independent.
In addition, it is thought that there is much room to improve in our education system. This is one of the major factors that make parents think of sending their children overseas. For example, schools in Hong Kong pay very little attention or give very limited support to gifted children when compared to schools in foreign countries. Parents of gifted children prefer sending their children overseas since they believe their children would have more support to excel their talents and become elites. Also, local students are under tremendous study pressure. Tons of homework, quizzes and tests make the learners unable to ‘breathe’. Worse still, students may lose their self-esteem or become depressed when they cannot get high grades to fulfill their parents or teachers’ expectations. In view of this, some parents would send their children abroad to complete their schooling.
It seems brilliant for students to study overseas. However, in the eyes of some students, it might be a nightmare. Studying in foreign countries is totally a new experience to teenagers. Numerous problems or unexpected things might happen, and students do not know how they can tackle them such as racism, bullying, cultural shocks and homesickness. Some teenagers in foreign countries may fall victim to discrmination because of their skin colours, hair colours or even their accents. All these make children studying abroad feel stressed and anxious every day. In soem extreme cases, some children might suffer from mental illnesses. They cannot seek help, support or advice since they have no friends, family members or anyone they trust in the foreign country. Even if they can finally settle the conflicts or problems, they might still find themselves hopeless, helpless and desperate whenever facing any difficulties. When they grow up, they may not know how to get along with others well or express themselves clearly.
There is no universal formula of how education should work or what an ideal education should be like. Yet, not every teenager is suitable to study abroad and they might not be able to face challenges on their own overseas. So parents should think twice before they send their beloved children overseas.