Moral and National Education controversy

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Moral and national education
Traditional Chinese 德育及國民敎育
Simplified Chinese 德育及国民敎育
Scholarism appealed to the public for participation in the 1 July march of 2012. Scholarism 2012.jpg
Scholarism appealed to the public for participation in the 1 July march of 2012.
Protest against implementation of national education on 29 July 2012 Hk protest against implementation of national education 7.jpg
Protest against implementation of national education on 29 July 2012

"Scholarism – The Alliance Against Moral & National Education" (later renamed "Scholarism", 學民思潮) was founded by a group of secondary school students on 29 May 2011, with no political affiliations. [7] Scholarism is the first pressure group formed and has become the leading organisation against MNE. The group is known for being one of the few organisations that protested outside the Central Government Liaison Office after the 1 July March 2012. [8]

Another prominent pressure group, the National Education Parents' Concern Group (Parents' Concern Group, 國民教育家長關注組) was formed in July 2012. The group issued a petition opposing to MNE, initiated by Cardinal Joseph Zen, Ching Cheong, Allen Lee and 27 other public figures, and co-signed by more than 1000 parents. [9]

In July 2012, the "Civil Alliance Against the National Education" (民間反對國民教育科大聯盟) was formed by 15 organisations, including Scholarism, Parents' Concern Group, PTU, Hong Kong Federation of Students, Alliance Youth, Civil Human Rights Front and others.

On 29 July 2012, 30 organisations protested in a march. According to the organisers, over 90000 protestors, including parents and their children, joined in this march. [10]

Scholarism began their occupation of the Hong Kong government headquarters on 30 August 2012. Fifty members occupied the public park beneath the government offices, of which three began a hunger strike. The goal of the protest was, expressly, to compel the government to pull back its plans of Moral and National Education. The initial planned length of the occupation was three days. [11] On 1 September, an open concert was held as part of the protest, with an attendance of 40,000; guest performers at the protest include RubberBand, C AllStar, Wong Ka Keung, Anthony Wong and others. During the event the three hunger-strikers ended their hunger strike, and were succeeded by a team of ten other hunger-strikers. [12]

The occupation of the government headquarters area exceeded the initial three-day duration, and on 3 September 2012 the Civil Alliance Against National Education announced that they would continue their occupation of the government headquarters area indefinitely. [13] On 7 September, up to 120,000 attendees, including retired legislator Martin Lee, Cardinal Joseph Zen and businessman Jimmy Lai, attended the demonstration outside the government headquarters, filling the entire North Admiralty area; police said there were 36,000 attendees at 9.30 pm. [14] [15] [16]

In mid-September 2012, Anonymous hackers threatened the Hong Kong government organisation National Education Services Centre. In their online video, Anonymous members claimed responsibility for leaking classified government documents and taking down the National Education Centre website after the Hong Kong government repeatedly ignored months of wide-scale protests against the establishment of the subject. [17]

On September 8, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced that he would temporary withdraw introducing the national education course, until the revising of the Moral, Civil and National education guidelines which has caused many concerns to many Hongkongers, has been addressed. [18]

Resistance to the MNE was documented in the 2014 film, Lessons in Dissent . [19]

Current status

As of 2017, the current secretary for education, Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, said recently that national education had not been scrapped completely. Teaching on the topic was continuing in the form of different subjects and activities in schools. [20] For example, the inclusion of a new requirement for all schools to provide 39 hours of Basic Law education at the junior secondary level, [21] or plans to make Chinese history a compulsory subject at senior secondary level. [22]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ CBCNews. [www.cbc.ca/news/world/hong-kong-fears-pro-china-brainwashing-in-education-1.1296013 Hong Kong fears pro-China brainwashing in education]. The Associated Press. 7 September 2012
  2. ↑ "教局跪低國民教育科推遲". The Sun . 27 January 2012. Archived from the original on 24 May 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  3. ↑ Moral and National Education Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 to Secondary 6), Education Bureau, 19 June 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012
  4. ↑ "Moral, Civic and National Education" . Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  5. ↑ 國民教育爭議事件簿, Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union Retrieved 29 July 2012
  6. ↑ "國民教育中心反擊洗腦指摘". Oriental Daily . 13 July 2012. Archived from the original on 23 April 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  7. ↑ 基本資料, Scholarism
  8. ↑ "Road closures a flashpoint during tense marches", South China Morning Post , 2 July 2012
  9. ↑ 香港家長聯署反對“國民教育科”課程指引, "VOA Chinese", 22 July 2012
  10. ↑ "9萬人上街反洗腦 BB車撞吳克儉落台". Apple Daily . 29 July 2012.
  11. ↑ "70多名學民思潮成員政總外紮營請願". Yahoo! Hong Kong . 30 August 2012. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  12. ↑ "日曬雨淋 撤科聲更響 主辦方：全日4萬人 警：高峰時8100". Yahoo! Hong Kong. 1 September 2012. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012.
  13. ↑ 梁子健 (4 September 2012). "反國教大聯盟籌備罷課 香港特首回應：願對話 8000港人「鐵屋吶喊」". Sing Tao USA. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  14. ↑ Shirley Zhao (8 September 2012), "Record-high turnout for anti-national education protests". Time Out
  15. ↑ "團體稱12萬人集會反國教 警方稱3萬6千". RTHK. 7 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  16. ↑ "反國教集會大會宣布有十二萬人出席". Commercial Radio Hong Kong. 7 September 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  17. ↑ 攻陷國教網站　黑客匿名：要革命！ 16 September 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013
  18. ↑ "CE shelves national education guidelines after panel report". 8 October 2012.
  19. ↑ “Lessons in dissent”, The Economist, 4 July 2014
  20. ↑ "Is national education set to make a comeback in Hong Kong?". 4 August 2017.
  21. ↑ "Why are Hong Kong teachers so concerned about Basic Law education?". 3 June 2017.
  22. ↑ "Make Chinese history compulsory to end youngsters' identity crisis, says CPPCC delegate Wu". 15 January 2017.
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