Media

HKU's Experts Call for Voice Protection Education for Teaching Professionals

21 Nov 2005

 

In the light of education reform in recent years, working pressure faced by the teaching professionals has been increased tremendously. In a recent survey conducted by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, more than 30 per cent of the respondents have exhausted from their heavy workload, and some of them even have different kinds of health problems, like depression and headache. However, unlike the aforementioned, voice problem, which is also widely common among teaching professionals in Hong Kong, seems to have less serious attentions than it should have had.

The research project conducted by Dr Edwin Yiu, Dr Karen Chan and Dr Estella Ma of the Voice Research Lab and Centre for Communication Disorders, both of which belong to the Faculty of Education of The University of Hong Kong, is an attempt to explore the prevalence and starting time of voice problems among teaching professionals and the impact on their daily life. It has found that around 22 000, about one-third of the whole teaching population, have voice problems, which results in total loss of 8 380 working days and HK$6.7 million of salary each year. Given such a great impact of the voice problems, Dr Yiu and Dr Chan have called for the launching of voice protection education for teaching professionals in Hong Kong.

The research findings will be presented by Dr Yiu and Dr Chan at a press briefing tomorrow, and details of which are as follows:-

Date: November 22, 2005 (Tuesday)
Time: 3:00pm
Venue: Room 218, Convocation Room, Main Building, The University of Hong Kong

This is the sixth in a series of announcements of research excellence at the University of Hong Kong. Members of media are cordially invited to attend. For enquiries, please contact Elsie Leung of External Relations Office direct (tel: 2859 2600).