Moral and national education | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 德育及國民敎育 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 德育及国民敎育 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Moral and civic education | |||||||||||
Chinese | 德育及公民敎育 | ||||||||||
|
Moral and national education (MNE),initially known as Moral and civic education (MCE),was a school curriculum proposed by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong in 2012.
The subject was controversial for its stance on the Chinese Communist Party and criticism of the United States two-party system. [1]
Moral and civic education was one of the four key tasks in the 2001 curriculum reform undertaken by the Education and Manpower Bureau (superseded by the Education Bureau in 2007),and its framework was revised by the Education Bureau in 2008.
On 13 October 2010,Chief Executive Donald Tsang stated in the "Policy Address 2010–2011" that moral and national education would replace MCE to "strengthen national education". The government planned to introduce the new subject in primary schools in 2012 and secondary schools in 2013,and carried out a four-month consultation in 2011. Following the opposition from the public,the government postponed the commencement of the subject indefinitely. [2]
According to the revised Moral and National Education Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 to Secondary 6) (MNE Guide) published in June 2012,the subject has the following aims: [3]
Education Bureau (EB) claims that Moral,Civic and National Education is "an essential element of whole-person education which aims at fostering students' positive values and attitudes through the school curriculum and the provision of diversified learning experiences". It also claims to "enhance" students' commitments and contributions to analyse and judge personal,family,social,national and global issues. [4]
Since 2001,Moral and Civic Education has been accorded as one of the four Key Tasks under the Curriculum Reform to cultivate students' positive values and attitudes (Priority values include "Perseverance","Respect for Others","Responsibility","National Identity" and "Commitment"). It has been suggested "life event" exemplars being used as learning contexts to enable students to realise positive values.
The Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (PTU),an organisation formed by different levels of teachers,believes that MNE is unnecessary,as the original civic education curriculum had already contained "national education". Its vice president Cheung Man-kwong claims that introduction of MNE is a political action ordered by the central government of the People's Republic of China. [5]
The "China Model National Conditions Teaching Manual",published by the National Education Services Centre under government funding,was found to be biased towards the Chinese Communist Party and the "China model". The teaching manual called the Communist Party an "advanced,selfless and united ruling group" (進步、無私與團結的執政集團),while denouncing Democratic and Republican Parties of the United States as a "fierce inter-party rivalry [that] makes the people suffer" (政黨惡鬥,人民當災). [6]
Occupy Tamar | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date | 30 August –8 September 2012 | ||
Location | |||
Methods | Occupations,sit-ins,internet activism,hunger strikes,hacking | ||
Parties | |||
| |||
Lead figures | |||
"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]
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]
The Hong Kong 1 July protests was an annual protest rally originally held by the Civil Human Rights Front from the day of handover in 1997 on the HKSAR establishment day. However, it was not until 2003 that the march drew large public attention by opposing the legislation of Basic Law Article 23. The 2003 protest, with 500,000 marchers, was the second-largest protest seen in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover.
The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) was an organisation that focused on the issues of Hong Kong politics and livelihood, affiliated with almost all pan-democratic camps in Hong Kong. It was founded on 13 September 2002 and disbanded on 15 August 2021.
YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College, abbreviated as YHKCC, is a secondary school located at Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong operated under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) of the Education Bureau. It is the first secondary school sponsored by the YMCA of Hong Kong.
The 2012 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 9 September 2012 for the 5th Legislative Council (LegCo) since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The British School of Beijing (北京英国学校) is a private school for children of foreign personnel in Beijing, China.
Eddie Ng Hak-kim GBS, JP is a former Secretary for Education in the Hong Kong Government. From 2017, he is a temporary adjunct professor at the MBA Centre of Shanghai University.
Scholarism was a Hong Kong pro-democracy student activist group active in the fields of Hong Kong's education policy, political reform and youth policy. It was reported to have 200 members in May 2015.
Secondary education in Taiwan refers to the Taiwanese education system in junior high school and senior high school. Junior high school education is compulsory in Taiwan. Children and youths aged 6 to 15 are required to receive nine years of compulsory education. By law, every pupil who completed his or her primary education must attend a junior high school for at least three years, with exemptions to homeschooling and severe disorder or disabilities. Legal guardians of offenders may be subjected to fines up to NT$300, where penalties may be repeatedly imposed until offenders return to school.
The 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign, also known as 922 Class Boycott and 926 Class Boycott, is a student strike protesting the PRC Standing Committee of the National People's Congress's restriction on nomination system of the election of the Chief Executive in the 2016 and 2017 Hong Kong Political Reform. The campaign, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism, was participated in by university students from 22 to 26 September and later also by secondary school students on 26 September. The student movement evolved into the 2014 Hong Kong protests in which several regions across the Victoria Harbour were occupied by pro-democracy protesters.
The East Wing Forecourt of the Central Government Office, or Civic Square, is an open space in front of the East Wing of the Central Government Complex, Hong Kong, which is located in Tamar. It was once an area where protesters took part in protests and demonstrations. It was closed in July 2014, and reopened on 10 September 2014. For many, it represents democracy and freedom, and a place to express their discontent. It was occupied for a rally opposing the moral and national education school curriculum proposal in August 2012, and during the 2014 Hong Kong protests in September 2014. Since then, the square is closed by the government in order to prevent protests.
Leticia Lee See-yin was an outspoken pro-Beijing figure in Hong Kong. She held several positions at various political and activist organisations in Hong Kong.
The Kaohsiung Japanese School is a Japanese international school on the campus of Kaohsiung Municipal Lingya District Jhong-Jheng Elementary School in Lingya District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan in the Republic of China.
Paul Yip Kwok-wah is the founder and chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute, chairman of the B & P Foundation, honorary professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University, honorary professor of Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as honorary professor of Shandong Youth University of Political Science.
The enactment of the Hong Kong national security law on 30 June 2020 has since caused huge changes in Hong Kong’s local education, government, culture, society, and economy. These effects are considered to be the result of the Hong Kong government’s continuing autocratization.
Lau Chi-pang, is a Hong Kong politician and academic serving as an Associate Vice President of the Lingnan University. In 2021, he was elected as one of the 40 Legislative Council members for the Election Committee constituency which was newly created under the electoral overhaul imposed by Beijing.
Chu Kwok-keung is a Hong Kong teacher and pro-Beijing politician, elected as a member of Legislative Council in 2021.
Halina Poon Suk-han is a Hong Kong educational worker, currently serving as a member of the Election Committee, which is responsible for electing the Chief Executive.
2030 Bilingual Nation is a policy in the Republic of China (Taiwan) promulgated by the Tsai Ing-wen administration in 2017. Its goal is to make English and another language the primary languages in Taiwanese society by 2030. In 2014, the then-mayor of Tainan city Lai Ching-te launched a ten-year plan entitled "English as the second official language" (英語為第二官方語言) to transform Tainan into a bilingual city by 2024. Lai Ching-te further promoted the national bilingual policy after taking over as premier of the Executive Yuan in 2017 and being elected as vice president of Tsai Ing-wen in 2020. Tsai Ing-wen repeatedly mentioned the goal of being a bilingual country by 2030 in her presidential inaugural address. Currently, a budget of more than NT$10 billion has been allocated to implement this policy.
Christine Choi Yuk-lin, is the current Secretary for Education in Hong Kong, formerly the principal of Fukien Secondary School and vice-chairlady of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers.