Organisers of yesterday's rally against the government's national education programme rejected the authorities' proposal to set up a committee to examine how the subject is to be taught in schools.
Representatives of the student-led group Scholarism and the National Education Parents Concern Group, as well as the Professional Teachers' Union, said they would not join the body put forward by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in response to the protest.
Organisers said the demonstration was attended by 90,000 people, but police put the figure at 32,000 at the peak of the rally.
Speaking at government headquarters in Admiralty after the first wave of protesters arrived outside, Lam did not elaborate on the scope and constitution of the committee.
She said only that the government would establish a body with 'broad enough representation' to monitor the continuous implementation of the subject. Lam added that parents should trust teachers to nurture critical and independent thinking in students.
But Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the convenor of Scholarism, called for the subject to be scrapped. He said: 'By joining the committee, it would mean recognising the subject of national education, which Scholarism has always opposed.'
Eva Chan Sik-chee, convenor of the parent concern group, said: 'As the curriculum was flawed itself, it remains problematic whatever repair work is done.'