Hong Kong primary pupils must understand constitution, secondary students must ‘love motherland’ under new values curriculum
- The revised guidelines add three new values, namely law-abidingness, empathy and diligence, to the seven that schools were already required to instil
- The new framework seeks to address what it characterises as students’ laziness and indifference, and bolster their sense of national identity
Hong Kong primary pupils as young as six should understand the spirit of the Chinese constitution, while older ones must learn to safeguard national security and “love the motherland” under a revised framework on civic values issued to all schools on Tuesday.
Laid out across 89 pages – and replacing the eight-page “Moral and Civic Education Curriculum Framework” of 2008 – the revised guidelines add three new values, namely law-abidingness, empathy and diligence, to the seven that schools were already required to instil.
The “Values Education Curriculum Framework”, as the new guidelines are known, also lacks its predecessor’s expectation that students recognise the importance of human rights. The other values schools are expected to promote are perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity, commitment, integrity and care for others.
The standing committee on values education under the Curriculum Development Council announced on Tuesday that a pilot version of the new framework will be implemented in all schools starting from the next school year, while some would be invited to join a trial run right away.
In a recent blog post, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung accused the city’s youth of rejecting hard work and adopting an indifferent attitude towards life, a mentality he characterised as “passive and self-indulgent”.
