National education programme to be expanded to cover more than 900 Hong Kong schools, principals say
- School heads say ‘Love Our Home, Treasure Our Country’ programme to be expanded from next academic year
- Aided and direct subsidy scheme schools to ‘devise their own national education activities’, which should be different from government institutions
Hong Kong will expand a national education programme to cover all 900-plus schools in the city, requiring them to devise large-scale joint activities for their pupils and children from other institutions.
School heads, who asked not to be named, said aided schools and those part of the direct subsidy scheme (DSS) had been told by the Education Bureau they should join the “Love Our Home, Treasure Our Country” programme from the next academic year, starting in September.
“Aided and schools joining the DSS were recently told to devise their own national education activities which should be different from those of the government schools. We were also asked to join the kick-off ceremony,” one of the principals told the Post.
But the expansion will take in more than 850 aided institutions and schools joining the direct subsidy scheme.
The kick-off ceremony for the programme last September involved all government schools, which have held a total of 11 joint activities so far, including Chinese-style foot drill and Chinese costume design competitions.
Another head teacher asked to join the programme alongside government schools said he believed parents and pupils were getting used to such schemes.