Hong Kong teachers investigated over involvement in protest movement will not be publicly outed, education secretary says

Revealing names of teachers who were subject to protest-related complaints would be unfair to them as well as their schools, Kevin Yeung tells Legco

But secretary also reveals that initial probe has found about 65 per cent of the allegations to be legitimate

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Hundreds of Hong Kong teachers and their supporters rallied at Edinburgh Place in Central against the government’s handling of complaints involving educators accused of protest-related misconduct. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 9:02pm, 15 Jul 2020Updated: 9:05pm, 15 Jul 2020

The government has no plans to publicise the names of teachers and schools involved in protest-related misconduct complaints, Hong Kong’s education minister has said, despite increasing pressure from pro-Beijing lawmakers and a former city leader to do just that.

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung also revealed on Wednesday that an initial probe had found wrongdoing in about 65 per cent of complaints involving teacher conduct related to the city’s months-long anti-government protest movement.

“If we publicise the names of all teachers involved in protest-related complaints, it would be unfair to the teacher as well as the school involved. Even if the teacher’s complaint was substantiated, we should give him or her a chance to improve,” he said.

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung told lawmakers on Wednesday it would be unfair to both the teachers and their institutions to publicise those who had complaints filed against them. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Between June 2019 and last month, initial investigation was completed in 180 of the 222 complaints involving teacher conduct during the protests, with 117 believed to have involved wrongdoing. More than half of those cases had already been followed up on.

Included in that group were 26 teachers given reprimand or warning letters, meaning if they commit the same offence again, they could lose their teaching licence.