My Take | Punishment should fit the offence, even for a ‘separatist’ teacher
- If the Hong Kong government does not trust teachers and schools to develop their own materials related to sensitive political topics, it should provide them with a proper curriculum
Given the divided state of Hong Kong society, there is just no neutral way for teachers, especially those teaching at primary levels, to discuss sensitive political subjects such as separatism. In that sense, the Education Bureau is right to declare such discussions off limits in the classroom.
But disqualifying a teacher for life for raising the topic? I certainly think it absurd and dangerous for a teacher to take up such a sensitive topic. Parents and school bosses have no way of knowing whether the teacher was merely raising the issue or advocating it among primary pupils.
But the severe punishment does seem to be a case of “killing the chicken to warn the monkey”.
The teacher involved reportedly devoted 50 minutes of study to the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party, and the Societies Ordinance, which was used to outlaw the separatist group in 2018. Pupils were made to watch a documentary that featured a speech by the party’s co-founder Andy Chan Ho-tin and were afterwards asked whether they agreed with his party manifesto. They also spent 35 minutes discussing independence for Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.
The amount of time spent on separatism was about two hours, out of a total of 23 hours devoted to life education for the year. On the face of it, the teacher did seem biased in favour of separatism, or at least considering it a defensible political position. Some kind of punishment was clearly warranted.
But there are two strong mitigating circumstances. The classes in question took place in March last year, before the widespread unrest and the introduction of the national security law a year later. The political situation back then was not nearly as toxic as today.