Hong Kong anti-government protests: class boycott organisers claim support of thousands
- Education secretary calls on secondary students not to join the Monday strike, saying schools should be free from politics
- But campus groups are already making plans
Up to 10,000 students from close to 200 Hong Kong secondary schools could walk out of classes on Monday, as the new term begins against a backdrop of continuing street protests.
One student group even warned of more radical actions, such as picketing school gates and disrupting traffic, if the government fails to meet their demands.
Elsewhere, students at 10 universities will organise a boycott, starting with a sit-in at Chinese University on Monday, followed by a series of lectures held across campuses under the principle of “boycotting classes but not education”.
Hong Kong has been rocked by 12 straight weeks of political unrest that stemmed from a government plan to allow the extradition of people accused of crimes outside the city to mainland China, among other places, to face trial. Protests against the now-abandoned proposal have since expanded to include five demands, including democratic reforms and an investigation into alleged excessive use of force by police.
As the class strike movement mushroomed, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung called on students to refrain from joining the boycott, saying that schools should be free from political interference.