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.

The second question requires the students, who are aged about 11, to comment on the reasons for proposing Hong Kong’s independence, based on the video they were shown. The paper does not identify the recording played to the pupils.

In one pupil’s answers, he lists possible motivations for supporting the city’s independence as: the uncivilised behaviour of mainland China tourists, parallel trading, the deterioration of Hong Kong’s freedom, and Beijing’s move to impose a restrictive framework for universal suffrage.

Hong Kong teacher loses registration for ‘spreading independence message’

That pupil also refers to what is described as the manipulation of the city’s elections and the erosion of some of the legislature’s functions by “Sai Wan”, a term commonly used to refer to Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong.

The third question asks students about a remark made by Taiwanese director Fu Yue when he received his award at the Golden Horse Film Awards for his documentary Our Youth in Taiwan in 2018.

The film chronicled the anti-mainland Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan six years ago. In his speech, Fu said his biggest wish was to see the self-ruled island treated as “an independent entity”.

Speaking before her weekly meeting with her de-facto cabinet, Lam said: “This is a very serious case … We do not allow independence and other unlawful ideas to creep onto campuses … through teaching materials, in-class teaching, exam questions and extracurricular activities.”

The chief executive also noted it marked the first time a city teacher had their registration rescinded because of professional misconduct.

“The administrative government today will go against all odds,” she vowed.

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But she assured that such teachers formed a small minority and urged the wider public not to lose confidence in the city’s education system.

In a statement, the board of governors at the primary school in Kowloon Tong involved said it would not comment on the case for privacy reasons, as the teacher had left his job.

“The school has a mission to spread the gospel through education and strives to keep the campus politically neutral,” it said.

The principal and vice-principal of the school have also been reprimanded by the bureau, which accused them of lax supervision.

Parents there have given a mixed response to the decision. The grandfather of a Primary One pupil, surnamed Geng, said he supported the bureau’s decision if the teacher “cannot guide students correctly”.

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“I haven’t read the teacher’s teaching materials myself, but teaching materials should [always] carry positive values to educate pupils,” he said.

“But I won’t [lose confidence] in the school. It’s the problem of a few people, which I don’t think will affect the whole school.”

Another father said he found the bureau’s move “too severe”, adding he still supported the school despite the incident.

“The teacher was only trying to let pupils learn that there are different opinions in society after viewing the TV programme,” he said.

“I think it got a bit too far when [the principal and vice-principal also got reprimanded], based on just one worksheet.”

Officials did not reveal the name and the school of the teacher when reporting the development late on Monday night.

The move followed former city leader Leung repeatedly slamming the education minister for “evading responsibilities” when handling complaints over teachers’ professional conduct in relation to the anti-government protests sparked last year by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.

In a Facebook post, Leung – who last week applied for a judicial review to force the bureau to identify teachers found guilty of misconduct – called on the teacher at the Kowloon Tong school to “reveal himself”, while also renewing calls for the bureau to disclose the names and schools of all teachers involved in wrongdoing.

Addressing her predecessor’s attempts to identify miscreant teachers, Lam said she too supported more transparency “under appropriate circumstances”.

While a bureau spokeswoman said the teaching materials were “biased and twisted”, the 100,000-strong Professional Teachers’ Union said stripping the teacher of his registration was “unreasonable”, adding it was helping him lodge an appeal.

Referring to the legislation, she said: “It demands all schools, universities, social groups, including the press and social networks, to enhance the promotion and education for national security.”

Lam added the education chief was to open talks with universities to discuss the matter.