Teaching controversial parts of Chinese history ‘up to textbook publishers and teachers’ in Hong Kong
Education Bureau says curriculum will only list ‘key points’ in history and teachers should decide which events to focus on to realise their ‘teaching goals’
Hong Kong’s junior secondary school pupils will spend less time on ancient Chinese history and more on political, economic and social developments related to modern China and the city, according to the revised curriculum unveiled by the Education Bureau on Monday.
Teachers and textbook publishers will also be given freedom to decide how to broach the more controversial chapters of Chinese history, with neither the Tiananmen Square crackdown nor Hong Kong’s 1967 riots mentioned in the revised syllabus.
The government launched a second round of public consultation on Monday as it reintroduced some of the “negative” topics, such as the decline of dynasties, in the revised curriculum after its first draft sparked backlash.
The proposed changes would see Form Three pupils spending a whole year on modern Chinese history, studying events ranging from the Chinese Revolution of 1911 revolution to the establishment of Hong Kong as a special administrative region in 1997.
Relations between Hong Kong and mainland China since 1949, Sino-British negotiations on the handover of Hong Kong to China, and the establishment of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, would also be on the syllabus.
