Photographer: Paul Yeung / Bloomberg
Photographer: Paul Yeung / Bloomberg
Hong Kong has ordered schools to adopt a more patriotic curriculum and advised teachers to report violations of the city’s national security law.
The measures, announced late Thursday, seeks to inculcate patriotism in preschool-age children through “story-telling, role-playing, drawing, singing, dancing and other activities.” Students as young as six years old will be taught to memorize offenses criminalized by the National Security Act, imposed on the city by China last year, including undermining, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers. The curriculum will cover all subjects from geography to biology.
“The basic principles of national security education are to develop in students a sense of belonging to the country, a love for the Chinese people, a sense of national identity, as well as an awareness of and a sense of responsibility for the national to protect safety, “the Hong Kong Education Bureau said in a statement.
The new curriculum could also affect Hong Kong about 52 international schools, which largely cater to the foreign population of the city. The government statement said that international schools have the “responsibility” to help their students gain a correct and objective understanding of the law, without expanding it.
No international school issued by Bloomberg was available for immediate comment.
Cut off ‘black hands’
Beijing has blamed Hong Kong’s education system for promoting differences of opinion and promoting months-long protests against the Chinese government’s growing power over the former British colony. Hong Kong authorities have previously promised to “cut off” the “black hands” – including teachers – as insufficiently patriotic.
The Hong Kong government tried to introduce a patriotic teaching curriculum in 2012, but overturned the decision after massive protests. The latest attempt to do so will further align the financial hub with the education system in mainland China, where students are, for example required to study the teachings of President Xi Jinping.
University and high school students were a majority of the front-line protesters in the 2019 unrest, and people under 18 were nearly a fifth of the roughly 10,000 arrests made in December last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg is. Students also organized protest activities, including the formation of human chains and class boycotts, actions prohibited under the new rules.
Ip Kin-yuen, a former lawmaker and vice president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, said the new guidelines “are not conducive to learning or promoting the development of young minds”, and that in an environment where people are trying to avoid getting into trouble “the natural reaction will be self-censorship.”
Owl video
As part of its promotional material, the government produced a 7-minute animation featuring an owl that explains the concept of national security and says it covers all aspects of Hong Kong society, including culture, cyber security and ecology. The video also says that it is “the right and duty of the central authorities to introduce the national security law,” and that other countries have similar laws.
Garrie Chow, a father with three children in Hong Kong schools, said the new curriculum means students “are not allowed to think independently.”
In September, the English Schools Foundation, which operates 22 international schools in the city, released and distributed a set of 15-page guidelines to tell teachers that the classroom is not a ‘safe space’ for discussion or debate on national security legislation. , The South China Morning Post report. ESF did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg.
Migration wave
The introduction of the new curriculum could contribute to the already increasing number of people emigrating to places such as the United Kingdom and Taiwan. Some parents and teachers cited Beijing’s growing control over Hong Kong schools as a major reason for leaving.
Jojo,’n 37-year old Chinese and special education teacher who would give her first name only for fear of security, said she wanted to move to the UK later this year and join thousands of others who have already done so via a path made available to the Hong Kong owners of the British national (overseas) passport. She is part of a WhatsApp group with 120 other local teachers helping educators acquire the skills and certificates needed to secure jobs in the UK.
“The students will have to follow (with the rules), but it will seriously affect their personal relationship with us,” Jojo said. “They will not trust us.”
– With the help of Chloe Lo
(Updates with more background throughout)