Treat students arrested over protests leniently, disregard anonymous complaints against teachers, principals urge Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam
- Secondary school heads worry about impact of legal action, jail time on students’ future
- ‘Unfair’ anonymous charges against teachers a major cause of concern among educators
Hong Kong students arrested over anti-government protests should be treated leniently to allow for social reconciliation, the city’s biggest association of secondary school principals has urged, while also asking for school operations to be free from “external non-professional intervention”.
The Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools made the calls in a submission to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, ahead of Lam’s fourth policy address, expected on October 14.
The principals’ 12-point list of proposals also covered how the authorities deal with protest-related complaints against teachers, as well as the number of students admitted to Hong Kong’s universities.
The principals asked the government to handle protest-related complaints against teachers cautiously, and to disregard anonymous complaints.
Between June last year and June this year, the Education Bureau received 222 such complaints against teachers, with initial investigations completed in 180 cases. They included 117 cases that were believed to involve wrongdoing, with follow-up action taken in 60 cases.