HK minorities urge the use of civic study instead of national education

A civic curriculum promoting multiculturalism should be taught in schools instead of the mainland-focused national education programme, say students from ethnic minorities - who have the support of critics of the new subject.

"I consider myself a Hongkonger, but the current [subject] guidelines describe [non-Chinese] as outsiders," said Gurwinder Kaur, 20, an Indian who was born in Hong Kong.

Kaur, a trainee teacher, says the proposed curriculum risks further marginalising ethnic minorities and engendering racism because it overemphasises Chinese identity based on geography, blood ties and a common sense of belonging. It also does not place China in a global context, she says.

She was speaking yesterday at a press conference organised by the Civil Alliance against National Education to mark the formation of a government advisory committee on national education, which the alliance has refused to join.

Maria Wong Yuen-ping, chairwoman of the Special Education Society of Hong Kong, said: "Why doesn't it [the curriculum] include things like where China is located in the world, its association with Hong Kong, the different races, how many languages are spoken?"

Wong says the present guidelines do not work for the roughly 20,000 disabled and intellectually challenged students in the education system.