Principal-teacher analogy easy to understand, one designer of Basic Law teaching materials says
Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee member Simon Lee Hoey defends educational video on radio show
One of the designers of the new Basic Law teaching materials for secondary students has defended their use of a principal-teacher analogy to describe the relationship between Beijing and Hong Kong’s leader, saying it was appropriate and easy to understand.
In the teaching materials released on Wednesday for a 15-hour “Constitution and the Basic Law” module as part of a new requirement for 39 hours of Basic Law lessons, the Education Bureau compared the Chinese central government to a school principal and the city’s chief executive to one of the form teachers.
The analogy was mentioned in a teaching video in which the narrator said a principal could not manage matters in detail for every class, so he authorised form teachers to do so. As to who should take on the role of a form teacher, the narrator said it was for the principal to decide.
Education lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen said the comparison was misleading as it failed to highlight the governing principle of “one country, two systems” for Hong Kong and presented the chief executive as appointed and not elected. He questioned if the description meant there was no need to further democratise the selection procedure by restarting the stalled political reform process.
Lee, who is on the committee that helped design the teaching materials, said the comparison highlighted the power structure between the two administrations, and it allowed secondary one and two students to digest the complicated concept easily.