Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam pledges to remove ‘bad apples’ from profession after teacher struck off for ‘promoting independence’

City leader vows to remove ‘bad apples’ from profession as she accuses some teachers of smearing Hong Kong and Beijing officials

Kowloon teacher first in city to be taken off professional register for ‘purportedly spreading the idea of Hong Kong independence’

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The struck-off teacher is believed to have taught at the Alliance Primary School in Kowloon Tong. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 12:21pm, 6 Oct 2020Updated: 4:41pm, 6 Oct 2020

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has pledged to “weed out the bad apples” from the teaching profession, after a primary school educator became the first to be struck off for “promoting Hong Kong independence” in the classroom.

The city leader said on Tuesday that her Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung had removed the teacher from the professional register following a “thorough probe”, adding he would provide more details on the case in the afternoon and respond to concerns over his bureau’s handling of protest-related complaints against teaching staff.

Lam also backed her education department over how it dealt with those in the profession she accused of seeking to smear Beijing, the Hong Kong government and police.

“This is a very serious case … We do not allow independence and other unlawful ideas to creep onto campuses

Carrie Lam

“I fully support the Education Bureau, secretary for education, and his colleagues, who have in the past years dealt with all complaints against teachers seriously and solemnly, including the anonymous ones,” Lam said at her weekly press briefing. “This work will continue to weed out all the bad apples in the education sector.”

The Education Bureau revealed late on Monday that the teacher – who has now left his job at the private Alliance Primary School in Kowloon Tong – had been taken off the register for “purportedly spreading the idea of Hong Kong independence” in violation of the Basic Law, the city‘s mini-constitution.

The teacher allegedly asked Primary Five pupils studying life education to answer four questions after showing them a TV documentary featuring pro-independence activist Andy Chan Ho-tin.

Titled “The Inviolable Red Line” and circulated online, the worksheet starts by asking pupils to define what freedom of speech is.

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