Many Hong Kong schools get failing marks on national security education, says Education Bureau
- Education Bureau inspection report says ‘only some’ schools have set objectives for national security curriculum
- Inspectors say too many teachers concentrate on ‘knowledge feeding’ on national security and fail to foster emotional connection to the country
An annual official review of Hong Kong’s schools has labelled efforts to teach national education “unsatisfactory” and hit out at teachers for failure to promote a sense of belonging to the country or duty to safeguard its well-being.
The inspection by the Education Bureau, which looked at 169 schools out of the more than 1,160 in the city in the 2021-22 academic year, was the first since national security education was added to the curriculum in response to growing anti-Beijing sentiment and a strengthening localist movement.
“There are still many schools that have not been able to fully cover the education of the constitution and Basic Law among the key learning elements,” the report said.
“It is not favourable to the adoption of a holistic approach to understanding our country’s history and culture, or to gaining a correct understanding of the ‘one country, two systems’ policy and the constitutional order.
“This practice is unsatisfactory.”
The Basic Law is the city’s mini-constitution, and the one country, two systems governing principle defines the relationship between Hong Kong and the central government.