Volunteer tutors help “dreaming” students with DSE: You are not alone
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The government’s push for the Anti-Mask Law has sparked intense retaliations. Many of the student protesters at the front lines, however, still have the DSE (Diploma of Secondary Education) to prepare for, which will start in less than six months. Sadly, none of their efforts for Hong Kong will be credited to their grades. In light of this, some netizens took the initiative to start a platform to recruit tutors. So far, 200 volunteer teachers have volunteered to tutor these students for free, in order to help them make up for all the lost hours. More than just being tutors, many of them end up offering emotional support to these students too, becoming the beacon of hope to the students in such difficult times.
Anna and Jessica (both aliases) are the initiators of the free tuition platform, “HKDreamers”. Anna said that ever since the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, more and more students have been injured. Feeling that they were not brave enough for the frontlines, they both of thought about what they could do.
During their time as students, they would spend the hours studying and cramming information before the exams. However, the students today are sacrificing their studies for the movement. Through this tuition platform, Jessica hopes to “make up for the study hours they lost”.
The platform mainly uses Telegram as a recruitment platforn. Tutors must provide their proof of education, while students only have to say that they have “dreamed” and state the field/subject they need help in. The platform will then match the tutor to the student. Currently the platform has about 200 tutors, and has matched up several dozen pairs of students and tutors, with priority given to students who will be taking the exams this year.
For safety reasons, tutoring will take place in a public area, and it has been made clear to both parties that there should be no discussions of any details of protest participation.
As white terror continues to spread in society, seeping even into school campuses, Anna is worried that students may become afraid to seek help for their studies, or even to seek psychological support and counselling.
Tung, a volunteer tutor who has started helping these students, actively participates in social movements, and was at the front line during the Umbrella Revolution. He would share relevant experience with his students.
“I’d tell them to go work towards university, climb up the academic and social ladder, then use that position of influence to start social movements, instead of these battles they find themselves fighting these days.”
He wanted to broaden the students’ horizon.
“The current climate has students saying things like ‘if I can’t get a degree then so be it,’ but there’s still a long road ahead, in life as well as this fight.”
Tung knew it was too late for some of the students to make the grade, but ever since the tuition classes, they have started to understand that this fight has more than one front and that they should not quit school. In Tung’s eyes, the students who truly care about what is going on in Hong Kong are better students as compared to those who chose to sit on the fence and stay silent about all that is happening.
“They have something in common, and that is their interest in student movements.”
He utilizes relevant news reports and articles from foreign media as English-teaching materials, of which students tend to find focusing easier.
Seeing how students much younger than him paying the price for this fight for freedom, Tung said, “I feel guilty. I’ve reached an age where my wellness is a top priority.” But he also felt that apart from chanting “students, add oil” and “we support you”, more should be done, “the volunteer tutor's biggest function is to connect people.” Personal interactions are much more effective than online interactions, interactions built on trust are better for gathering like-minded people.