Catholics join opposition to patriotic schooling
The Catholic diocese of Hong Kong has joined the chorus of opposition against the government's national education plan, saying it puts the welfare of state or government ahead of that of its citizens.
In an article in its weekly newspaper, the Sunday Examiner, the church speaks out for the first time on the proposal to make all Hong Kong schools include national education as a subject.
'It is the state and the government that exist for the well-being of the citizens, not the citizens for the welfare of the state,' the article says.
The church also says that because of the tight timetable, with the national and moral education rollout starting in 2012, there will be no choice but to import textbooks directly from the mainland, as was done in Macau.
The diocese's chief curriculum officer, Francis Chan Nai-kwok, said this meant Hong Kong would be forced to transplant mainland-style patriotic education into schools.
In the article, published yesterday, the church also challenges what it says is the assumption that Hongkongers are unpatriotic.
'The drafting committee of the Catholic Board of Education argues that people in Hong Kong are not unpatriotic, as seems to be implied in the consultation paper.'
Historically, it says, Hong Kong people have shown they have a special way of loving their country.
Even as a British colony, Hong Kong invested in villages and cities on the mainland, and assisted people in addressing social problems and the development of financial and community infrastructure.
'The committee notes that because Hong Kong is still a special administrative region of China, any education programme on moral and civic values should be promoted in the context of one country, two systems, not just transplanted from the mainland itself,' the article says.
It adds that to achieve a rounded moral and civic education programme, as well as engendering a true patriotic love of country, students should learn about the development of modern China.
'It may not always be good,' Chan said. 'But students need to learn to ask questions like, 'will developments lead to the promotion of human dignity, the fair distribution of wealth or paying more attention to the needs of the weak?''
The national education consultation drew more than 1,000 submissions. The government is expected to sort them before they are discussed by the Moral and National Education Ad Hoc Committee, an advisory body, next Thursday.
Many groups - including the 13,000-member Federation of Education Workers and the 80,000-member Professional Teachers' Union - have already expressed their discontent over the controversial proposal.
