National education with no flinching from sensitive subjects - that is what one primary school principal has promised to introduce in his classes this autumn.
Leung Kee-cheong, headmaster of the Fresh Fish Traders' School, waded into the national education controversy in an interview on Thursday by saying: 'Teachers will not shy away from any sensitive political incidents. We'll tell the students that the June 4 bloodshed in 1989 was a patriotic movement, and the government handled it improperly.'
The school, in Tai Kok Tsui, will not use teachers' guide The China Model, which has been sharply criticised by many teachers and parents in Hong Kong as excessively biased towards Beijing.
Teachers would use other resources to address the sensitive module dealing with contemporary China, Leung said. They will also teach the four other modules of national education, which include moral education and Chinese geography.
The Hong Kong National Services Centre published The China Model, which fails to mention major events such as the June 4, 1989, crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
Leung called the booklet a 'negative example'. The school, he said, would compile materials from other textbooks. The time spent gathering material will delay its launch until October. 'At this stage, we will mainly present factual knowledge to students,' he said. It will use 80 per cent of the HK$530,000 government subsidy to hire a new teacher and the rest to prepare teaching materials.
Many teachers and parents have been alarmed by the Education Bureau's call for students' progress to be graded. Parents say it is ridiculous to grade students' feelings because some will not be moved by the sight of the Chinese flag being raised.