First national education classes taught at Tai Kok Tsui primary school

Four different-coloured hats were used to help pupils at a Tai Kok Tsui primary school grasp their first lessons in moral and national education yesterday while opponents of the controversial curriculum continued to demand that it be scrapped.

Fresh Fish Traders' School headmaster Leung Kee-cheong invited parents and journalists to sit in on the lessons as Primary Six pupils learned about the national flag and younger children were instructed on such moral issues as family roles and telling lies.

The school, serving mainly less-well-off children, will have seven lessons in the programme over the school year.

The school has not assigned teaching materials, and teachers have been given free rein to impart what they like within the curriculum's framework.

Media flocked to the only primary six classroom to observe how teacher Ken Sze Chi-king would tackle a lesson on the flag and flag-raising ceremonies.

Sze, who usually teaches Chinese and is co-ordinating the programme, used four hats to symbolise objective, critical, emotional and optimistic ways of thinking about any given topic - a technique derived from Edward de Bono's book Six Thinking Hats.