PTU Wants Coroner To Probe Teacher's Suicide

The Professional Teachers' Union has called on the coroner's court to investigate the death of a teacher, who jumped to her death from a Tin Shui Wai school last week after allegedly coming under severe work-related stress and constant bullying from the school principal.

The PTU's president Fung Wai-wah, said on Wednesday that schools have been given "too much" autonomy under the school-based management mechanism, where checks and balances on principals are often insufficient.

Fung said it's not ideal for the Education Bureau to delegate the bulk of supervision responsibility to the schools' Incorporated Management Committees (IMCs), saying officials must not shirk their responsibility.

"We think that there should be a comprehensive review... the school based management model so that the Education Bureau can take up ...the responsibility to monitor the school," Fung said.

The Education Secretary, Kevin Yeung, said while authorities tend to delegate operational decisions to schools, the government takes complaints from teachers seriously.