Photographer: Paul Yeung / Bloomberg
Photographer: Paul Yeung / Bloomberg
Hong Kong ordered schools to adopt a more patriotic curriculum and advised teachers to report any breaches of the city’s national security law, the government’s most important measure to reform the education system after the school year. 2019 protests.
The measures, announced Thursday afternoon, it seeks to instill patriotism in children through childhood through “storytelling, role-playing games, drawing, singing, dancing and other activities.” Students up to the age of six will be taught to memorize the crimes criminalized by the national security law, which China imposed on the city last year, including subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with powers. foreigners. The curriculum will cover all subjects, from geography to biology.
“The foundations of national security education are to develop in students a sense of belonging to the country, an affection for the Chinese people, a sense of national identity, as well as an awareness and a sense of responsibility to safeguard national security. “. The Hong Kong education office said in a statement.
The new curriculum may also affect that of Hong Kong approximately 52 international schools, which cater largely to the city’s expatriate population. The government statement that international schools have a “responsibility” to help their students “acquire a correct and objective understanding” of the law, without elaborating it.
No international school Bloomberg attended was available for immediate comment.
Cut the “black hands”
Beijing has blamed Hong Kong’s education system for fomenting dissent and fueling months-long protests opposing the Chinese government’s growing power over the former British colony. The Hong Kong authorities have done so before he pledged to “cut off” the “black hands,” including teachers, who considered themselves insufficiently patriotic.
The Hong Kong government tried to introduce a patriotic education curriculum in 2012, but abandoned the decision after massive protests. The latest attempt to do so will help the financial center align with the education system in mainland China, where there are students, for example, forced to study the teachings of President Xi Jinping.
College and high school students formed the majority of front-line protesters in the 2019 riots and people under the age of 18 accounted for nearly a fifth of the roughly 10,000 arrests made last December, according to Bloomberg data. Students also organized protest activities that included the formation of human chains and boycotts in classes, 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 fostering the development of young minds” and that in an environment where people are trying to avoid problems , “the natural response will be self-censorship.”
Video Owl
As part of its promotional materials, the government produced a 7-minute animation with an owl explaining the concept of national security, saying it covers all aspects of Hong Kong society, including culture, cybersecurity and security. ecology. The video also says it is “the right and duty of central authorities to enact 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 have independent thinking.”
In September, the English Schools Foundation, which operates 22 international schools in the city, published and distributed a 15-page set of guidelines directing teachers to tell students that the classroom is not a “safe space” for discussion. or national debate. security law, South China Morning Post reported. ESF did not immediately respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.
Migration wave
The imposition of the new curriculum could add to the already growing number of people migrating to places like the UK and Taiwan. Some parents and teachers have cited Beijing’s growing control over Hong Kong schools as the main reason for leaving it.
Jojo, a 37-years The Chinese and Chinese special education teacher who would only give her first name for security reasons, said she plans to move to the UK later this year, joining thousands of others who have already done so. done through a route made available to holders of British (Overseas) National Passports. She is part of a WhatsApp group with 120 more local teachers who help educators gain the skills and certifications needed to get a job in the UK.
“Students will have to follow (with the rules), but it will seriously affect their personal relationship with us,” Jojo said. “They won’t trust us.”
– With the assistance of Chloe Lo
(Updates with more background)