Catholic schools will shun the government's invitation to introduce national education, a day after two other Christian bodies asked for more time to implement the policy.
Antony Ip Sing-piu, an assistant to the episcopal delegate for education, said yesterday that Catholic schools would not introduce the subject 'the way it has been proposed', until a clear set of objectives was drawn up by a recently formed diocesan taskforce looking into the subject.
Ip said that, for now, Catholic schools would not use the HK$530,000 offered by the government to schools that introduced the subject.
'We are responsible to parents and students ... we don't necessarily have to use it [the funding] even if it is given,' he said. Recently, Ip said, Cardinal John Tong-hon wrote a letter to Hong Catholic school principals and supervisors stating that national education should be introduced to Catholic classrooms step by step.
On Tuesday two other Christian denominations running schools asked for more time to implement the initiative, launched in April.
Primary schools are being encouraged to introduce national education teaching as an independent subject this September, while secondary schools are being encouraged to do so by September next year. The subject will become compulsory at primary level in 2015 and in secondary schools in 2016.