More school-sponsoring bodies have decided not to implement the controversial national education curriculum this September, but they say they are taking advantage of the government's own timetable, not dragging their feet.
The Methodist Church, Catholic diocese, Buddhist Association and Tung Wah, which together operate 87 primary schools, have joined groups planning to delay implementation of the programme until at least next year.
Their schedule, the school sponsors say, conforms with the government's plan for a three-year adjustment period before mandatory implementation of the curriculum in the 2015-16 school year.
Nonetheless, the groups say their lesson plans already include many aspects of the education plan, which covers everything from character development to more thorny issues about the central government.
'Eight years ago, we started a programme called life education where we taught our kids in a weekly course about themselves, their families, society, country and the world,' said Reverend Paul Kan Kei-pui of the Methodists. 'This is all very similar to the government's curriculum.'
The church, which operates 11 primary schools in the city, plans to implement the full curriculum next year. 'We will review the materials, and also give our frontline staff a chance to have a trial period in teaching the material,' Kan said. 'There's no rush, we have until 2015.'
The Catholic diocese, which operates 56 primary schools, will wait until the 2014-15 school year to implement the curriculum, as an internal task force studies how it overlaps with the current curriculum, said Dominic Chu Fu-yau, an assistant to the episcopal delegate for education at the Catholic Education Office.