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A pro-establishment teachers’ union has called on the government to provide more guidelines for teaching national security education. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

80 per cent of Hong Kong teachers struggling with national security education, survey finds

  • Pro-establishment teachers’ union attributes findings to lack of familiarity with the law
  • ‘If you ask these legal laymen to teach law, they’re surely not confident enough,’ vice-chairman says
More than 80 per cent of Hong Kong teachers struggled with national security education in the past year, according to a new survey, with more than half reporting they lacked the necessary resources.

The pro-establishment Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers surveyed 315 educators earlier this month – some 60 per cent of whom dealt with national security-related classes themselves – and found that 64 per cent across all grade levels were “not confident” when it came to teaching the subject.

Revealing the results of the survey on Tuesday, federation vice-chairman Tang Fei attributed the results to teachers’ lack of understanding about the Beijing-imposed national security law.

“Nobody majors in law,” said Tang, who is also the principal of Heung To Secondary School (Tseung Kwan O). “If you ask these legal laymen to teach law, they’re surely not confident enough.”

Hong Kong universities must also hold weekly flag-raising ceremonies

The national security law, which took effect on June 30 last year, targets acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. It also requires schools and universities to promote national security education.

The government issued sweeping guidelines in February covering everything from management and teaching to pupils’ off-campus behaviour in order to bring Hong Kong’s schools in line with the law.

It also provides an online event planning calendar that instructs schools on what to do and where to visit on various patriotic dates.

Many teachers, however, still found the guidelines “too general”, Tang said.

The federation called on the government to pass out clearer guidelines and more practical teaching resources such as textbooks and videos – especially for younger children – to help struggling educators.

Nearly 80 per cent of survey respondents said they expected the Education Bureau to provide “interactive teaching materials”, while 70 per cent asked for lesson plans that catered to students from different grades.

For primary schools in particular, Tang urged education authorities to add more mid-level staff within schools who could take charge of national security education.

National flag-raising ceremonies are among the issues on which schools require more guidance, the federation says. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Tang also called on the government to pair online resources with offline activities, “because national security is not just about education [in the classroom]”.

The Education Bureau also issued new guidelines in October requiring all schools to hold flag-raising ceremonies every week, as well as on special occasions such as National Day and at graduations, though Tang said officials should spell out more details.

“The most urgent issue for education authorities now is to make clear whether all the national flag-raising ceremonies starting from next year have to practise marching in the Chinese style,” Tang said.

Previously, Hong Kong favoured the British style of marching, but the city’s disciplined services have recently embraced the Chinese “goose-step” version.

The flag-raising guidelines came after the Legislative Council amended the National Flag and Emblem Ordinance last month to ban flying the banner upside down or casually disposing of it.

More schools held patriotic events for National Day than last year, survey finds

Schools, Tang noted, only had a short time to learn what to prepare for the ceremonies – including marching uniforms, poles and other details.

More than four-fifths of survey respondents said their schools held flag-raising ceremonies, 72 per cent said they flew the national flag and 64 per cent arranged the singing of the Chinese anthem to mark National Day on October 1 this year. The federation attributed the percentages, which were the highest seen in recent years, to social order being restored and the new national security law guidelines.

A quarter of teachers, meanwhile, agreed that holding patriotic events for National Day “significantly enhanced” students’ sense of national identity, while just over half said they “slightly enhanced” it. Combined, the figures were the highest seen in the past three years.

In response, the Education Bureau said it would study the survey report.

It said it had released a curriculum framework for 15 relevant subjects this year to help teachers integrate content with national security education. It had also offered training since last November by holding national security-related online seminars for more than 13,000 primary and secondary school teachers.

Starting this academic year, the bureau said it had organised workshops on national security education for schools, and built a new online platform containing relevant resources, including teaching reference materials, audio picture books for students and quizzes.

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