Campaign against national education goes on, say protesters
Campaigners call off rally after government's national education climbdown, but boycott of university classes will go ahead tomorrow
Organisers decided to disperse the crowds in the early hours of yesterday morning after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying staged a dramatic U-turn on the controversial classes.
He announced the scrapping of a three-year deadline for implementation, saying schools would instead be free to choose independently whether to teach the subject.
But a citywide class boycott scheduled for tomorrow at universities will proceed. And the activists said they intended to continue monitoring schools where the subject is introduced.
They declared the first stage of their fight "effective". Eva Chan Sik-chee, co-founder of the Parents' Concern Group on National Education, said: "The occupation has ended but our campaign hasn't. We foresee that some schools will still launch the subject and we will help the parents." The protesters, who referred to themselves as an alliance against national education, urged the government to withdraw its curriculum guidelines before conducting a comprehensive consultation.
They plan to send Leung a public letter asking him to clarify what he meant by "reviewing the curriculum guidelines".
They will also ask why guidelines were still needed when the curriculum might not become an independent subject after all.
But they said they had abandoned plans to meet the chief executive.
"He's unreasonable, an 'iron board'," Chan said, describing Leung as unfeeling towards hunger strikers at the rally.
The Federation of Students, meanwhile, will go ahead with their class boycott on university campuses tomorrow.
"The battlefront has changed from the streets to the schools," said Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the 15-year-old convenor of student-activist group Scholarism.
He said he would work with student associations at schools to monitor and put pressure on schools over curriculum policies.
The campaigners said they were not fully satisfied with the government's policy change, but ended the rally to protect the health of the hunger strikers.
There were also rumours that people were being paid to stir up trouble at the rally and that exhaustion was setting in.
"We miss our family and school life," Wong said. "We hope the public will understand our sudden decision."
Scholarism said the rally's end would give members and volunteers a rest and time to prepare for further action.
Some young people said they planned to stay on overnight at the piazza, but most decided to leave.
Tsui Ho-cheong, 21, said he and his friends were leaving because "we're afraid we'll be prosecuted for illegal assembly".
Leung said after casting his vote in the Legislative Council election yesterday: "I believe the new policy can satisfy many people, and could reach the biggest consensus.
"I also hope our education system, especially teaching and school life, can return to normal as soon as possible."
