Liberal Studies Writing Task- School drug testing in Hong Kong

Liberal Studies Writing Task- School drug testing
‘Public opinion concerning the implementation of the school drug testing scheme was ignored by the HKSAR Government.’ To what extent do you agree with the statement? Explain your answer with the aid of three examples.

With less than a month to go before the commencement of the Trial Scheme on School Drug Testing in Tai Po, important issues concerning implementation of the program such as invasion of privacy still remain unresolved. Despite this and the objection of some citizens, the government still decides to go ahead with the scheme. In this way, the public opinion was thought to be ignored by the government. However, someone thinks that the government has already made some amendments in response to the public. To be frank, I partly agree with the statement of the question.

First of all, the government has been lessening the legal force of constraint in order to reduce the resistance of implementing the scheme. The government has promised that the police will not involved and the students who are tested positive will not be charged. In addition, the letter of consent has to be signed by both the student and his parent.

Furthermore, the students can feel free to withdraw from the scheme. All these are the amendments made by the government in response to the demand of public. Therefore, the government can be considered to have deliberated the public opinions.

Next, a hundred of students joined the demonstration to show their discontentment with the scheme. When they arrived the government headquarter, the security guards refused to open the gate to let them in and submit the petition. In this case, I think that the government officials should at least have accepted the petition to show their concern. Otherwise, the government would be thought to have ignored the public opinion.

Thirdly, more than fifty briefing sessions of the drug testing scheme have been held in the Tai Po schools. The government said that what they had gained was positive feedback where negative feedback only took up a small part. During those sessions, the students and parents were free to express their opinions and interact with the government officials directly. Thus, the government officials can listen to the public opinion and make the scheme as ideal as possible.

To sum up, I partly agree with the statement because of the amendments made to the scheme, the demonstration and the briefing sessions. After all, I do hope the number of drug abusers in Hong Kong will reduce gradually.