My TakeNational education can be a viable and useful programme for Hong Kong

As Chief Executive Carrie Lam has hinted, Hong Kong can incorporate its own unique national and international characteristics and outlook, producing a curriculum that suits our needs

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Activists outside the office of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers in Mong Kok on July 31, 2017 protest against the appointment of Christine Choi Yuk-lin as Deputy Education Minister over fears that the national education curriculum will return to Hong Kong . Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 2:24am, 9 Aug 2017Updated: 2:24am, 9 Aug 2017

If it’s a choice between localist-inspired separatism and “brainwashing” national education, I would choose the latter anytime. In the final analysis, Hong Kong has no future as a separate entity. It’s only viable as part of the country. That is the reality; we might as well tell our children now.

In any case, it doesn’t look like we have a choice. When was the last time a Hong Kong chief executive had a high-profile meeting with the nation’s education minister? This week, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met the minister, Chen Baosheng, who promptly reminded her of the importance of strengthening young people’s “education on the Chinese constitution, Basic Law, and Chinese history and culture” in Hong Kong. That is about as explicit as telling Lam to get on with national education, or else. To her credit, Lam manoeuvred some leeway for herself and the city.

“My idea of education is simple: youths should have national awareness, emotional attachment with Hong Kong and an international vision,” she said.

In a subtle way, she is hinting at a national education programme that is not completely driven by patriotism. Yes, awareness of Chinese identity is important, but young people may also feel attached to their city of birth and have a world vision. Yes, we are a Chinese city, but also an international one. That’s our reality, too.

National education has been making a creeping return since 2012, when massive protests led to its being made an optional programme for schools. Some leftist schools have been teaching it all along. Others have strengthened the teaching of Chinese history. While Basic Law education has been around since the early 2000s, new guidelines for secondary schools have made it obligatory to teach a minimum number of hours on the Basic Law, which may be integrated with Chinese history, life and society and geography.