Characteristics of Hong Kong School Guidance and the Implementation of Comprehensive School Guidance

Generally speaking, 'Guidance', known as pastoral care in UK schools, seek to promote the whole person growth of students, the aim of guidance is to encourage students' self esteem and the development of various aspects of their 'self', such as personal, moral and social and it is educational (Hui, 2000; Hue, 2007).
In his latest article, Hue (2007) explained the whole school approach should be conceptualized as a model for guidance which emphasizes the united effort of all school personnel who, under the leadership of the school head, work together to create a positive learning environment enriched with care, trust and mutual respect. Apart from that, school guidance work is to help students to maximize their own potential acquire acceptable social skills, discriminate right from wrong, develop appropriate values. In addition to this goal, school guidance work should help prevent or overcome students' problems through prompt assistance and appropriate advice.
Whole School Approach to School Guidance and Comprehensive School Guidance Programs
The whole school approach to guidance can be conceptualized as a model, and it can be implemented through comprehensive school guidance programs. Gysbers (2005) pointed out that the comprehensive guidance program currently being used by many states and school districts in the United States consists three elements: content, organization framework and resources. In this article, I will try to analysis comprehensive guidance programs in Hong Kong based on Gysbers' model since the Hong Kong Education Bureau also adopted the model for implementing guidance services in schools.
Firstly, the content element identifies competencies considered important for students to master as a result of their participation in a comprehensive guidance program, it aims at developing students' strengths and it could be the goal for the program. Secondly, the organization framework element contains two sections. The first section is three structural components; it includes the definition, rationale and assumptions. The second section consists four program components; they are guidance curriculum, individual planning, responsive services and system support. The third element of the comprehensive guidance program is resources; the resources are personnel, financial and political resources.

The goal for the comprehensive school guidance is to identify the competencies to be developed, it could be rest on the following objectives: raises students' awareness of their feelings and develop their skills in handling emotion, helps students build up self confidence and enhance self-esteem, promote desirable learning and social behavior, facilitate students' life planning, goal setting, and career formulating, and identify problematic areas in an early state and provide initial and frontline intervention to help students cope with their problems. He suggests the percentage for guidance curriculum programs for high school students should be 15-25 percent, individual planning as 25-35 percent, responsive services 25-35 and system support are 15-10 percent (Gysbers, 2003).
Luk and Lung (2003) also proposed a similar 3Ps model for evaluating the guidance and counseling services in schools. The model stressed the importance of programs, personal and polities.
In the following paragraphs, I will examine Hong Kong literatures concerning the characteristics of Hong Kong schools guidance and based on the above framework and model to see how the literatures' findings promote or hamper the implementation of the comprehensive school guidance model in Hong Kong senior secondary schools setting. Following that, suggestions will be made to see how the comprehensive school guidance could be adapted.
Newly Emerged Senior Secondary Schools (SSSs) and its Characteristics

After the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, the Hong Kong SAR government noticed the economy was undergoing an accelerated economic restructuring. The economy is shifting from labor-intensive industries to knowledge-based industries. Hong Kong's promising future is now heavily depending on excellent services provided to the world, namely financial services, legal services, accounting services and tourism. Although there are many differences between all these service sectors, one thing is in common, they are all about advanced knowledge and services.
With the new opportunities, new challenges are also emerging. The success of knowledge-based economy very much depends on talents who are creative and innovative. In view of the highest unemployment rate among all age groups, how to cultivate adolescent potential pose new challenges to the education sectors, especially secondary and tertiary sectors which mainly provide opportunities for young people to develop their skills and knowledge needed in the society.
In response to the question, the Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau (now known as Education Development Bureau) proposes new initiative in 2002 aims at providing alternative senior secondary education to the Form three school leavers. Four senior secondary schools (SSSs) were established in 2003 and the schools were providing schooling from Form four to Form seven. Since the schools are funded under the government direct subsidize scheme, the curriculum and school structure and curriculum are much flexible than the traditional schools and it is conducive for schools to response to diverse students' needs.
Comprehensive School guidance in SSSs (Content Elements)
Desirable content elements

The content element identifies competencies considered important for students to master as a result of their participation in a comprehensive guidance program and the identified competence serves as a goal and direction for the programs design (Gysbers, 2005). The competencies could be rest on the following objectives: raises students' awareness of their feelings and develop their skills in handling emotion, helps students build up self confidence and enhance self-esteem, promote desirable learning and social behavior, facilitate students' life planning, goal setting, and career formulating, and identify problematic areas in an early state and provide initial and frontline intervention to help students cope with their problems.
Yuen (2002) suggests the content element of the program, life skills competencies should be balanced with those of personal/social, career, and academic for educating the whole person.
Strengths in Hong Kong schools' setting
Hui (2000) suggested developmental guidance curriculum should be integrated in some degree into the academic curriculum, so that guidance will be seen, not as distinct from students' learning and cognitive development, but as integral to school experience. Since the aim of establishing the SSSs is to cater the needs of some disadvantaged students, life skills are emphasized in the school curriculum through various forms of implementation. Some of the SSSs have already integrated life skills as their formal curriculum; the contents cover competencies like personal/social, career, and academic with the aims at nurturing the whole person development. In 2007, one of the SSSs integrated the Other Learning Experience (OLE) program newly proposed by the Education Development bureau to their formal curriculum. It provides additional opportunities for students to develop their strengths and competencies.

Research (Cheung and Rudowicz, 2003) shown that students stratified in low-band schools may be particularly vulnerable to the big-fish-little-pond effect, which erodes the self-esteem of students in ability-grouped classroom observed in Hong Kong and other places. Cheung (1997) pointed out academic performance in school may be associated with deviant behavior. Poor academic results may generate a low self-concept and a low perceived personal control, which may, in turn, be conducive to involvement in delinquency. In reality, students admitted to SSSs could be characterized as low motivated, possess negative or low self concept, academic underachiever, undesirable behavioral pattern, immature emotional control, lack of social skills and poor parent-child relationship. SSSs are well aware of these characteristics and many of its programs are designed to enhance students' positive self concept and develop their self-esteem.