Occupy over, Beijing turns to classrooms

Occupy over, Beijing turns to classrooms

Hong Kong schools teach 353 years of Chinese history over the course of one year, with less than an hour a week dedicated to the subject.

In particular, the evolution of modern China dating from the 1911 revolution is compressed within a short semester.

This, laments Mr Choi Kwok Kwong, chairman of Education Convergence, a pro-establishment lobby group of educators, is hardly adequate to help students understand their country.

"Some of the students misunderstand China. They get their information through the media and most have never been to the mainland. There were many changes after China opened up in 1978, but in Hong Kong many don't know about them," he says, arguing that more time and resources should be given to the subject.

Less than a month after the end of the 79-day Occupy movement, the first hints of Beijing's attempted tightening of the screws on Hong Kong are manifesting themselves - and the first target appears to be the city's classrooms, accused of an alleged failure to inculcate "nationalism" in young Hong Kongers.

A former senior mainland official last week said Hong Kong's education minister should be under Beijing's supervision at all times, adding that the education system is to blame for Hong Kong youth's "lack of national identity".

Speaking in Beijing, Mr Chen Zuoer, former deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said: "How did the youth, who were just babies during the handover, become those on the (Occupy movement) frontline, storming our military camps and government buildings while waving the Union Jack?

"It is clear there are problems with the development of Hong Kong's education."

The country's "national interest" must be considered when the city formulates its education policy, he added.

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Meanwhile, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying is expected to announce during his annual policy address today a new subsidy scheme to fund schools' exchange programmes with institutions on the mainland.

Concerns among Beijing officials and loyalists about the Hong Kong education system are not new.

In 2007, spooked by signs that Hong Kongers seemed no closer to feeling at one with their motherland a decade after 1997, then President Hu Jintao raised the issue of introducing national education classes in schools.

But the policy was put on hold in 2012, following a 10-day protest over fears that it will become a propaganda exercise.

With national education having become politically toxic, pro-establishment figures turned their attention in more recent times to the teaching of Chinese history.

The recent remarks by Mr Chen, who remains an influential figure among Beijing's Hong Kong policymakers, have thus stoked fears of the central government's renewed determination after Occupy to fix what it views as a persistent problem, putting Hong Kong's autonomy under threat.

Under the Basic Law, education falls squarely within the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong government, notes Professor Kerry Kennedy, a curriculum studies expert at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

On whether the seeming lack of emphasis on Chinese history in Hong Kong schools is a problem, he says: "All countries like to make sure their (youth) have access to their country's history.

"The issue then is how much curriculum time, and whose version of history are we talking about? Will students learn and understand June 4, the workings of the Chinese Communist Party, the Cultural Revolution?"

Have faith in the Hong Kong education system - its principals and teachers - to be objective, argues Mr Choi, himself a school principal.

He points out that the events of June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square are relegated to just a terse paragraph in history textbooks.

"If we can broadly agree that reforms are needed, we can start working on a more well-rounded teaching of Chinese history, warts and all."

Such aspirations may be well meaning. Unfortunately, Mr Chen's remarks are unlikely to inspire confidence that any changes will move in such a direction.


This article was first published on January 14, 2015.
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