The Hong Kong secondary school course that vexes Beijing is headed for a makeover but will it spell the end of critical thinking among students?

The government plans to overhaul a mandatory subject for older students that has been blamed by pro-establishment figures for radicalising youth

While some veteran educators agree changes are needed, they also fear the reforms will destroy a programme that’s given teenagers key tools to interpret the world

9-MIN READ9-MIN

Published: 7:30am, 28 Nov 2020Updated: 2:16pm, 28 Nov 2020

When Hong Kong’s government began to consider liberal studies teaching two decades ago, the lofty aim was to teach students how to critically evaluate information and distinguish fact from opinion.

Similar programmes on social studies or civic education existed in the financial hub, but none were mandatory. The government would spend several years searching for the ideal way – in the words of the No 2 education official at the time – to inspire teenagers to “think more”.

“The purpose is to encourage young people to … analyse and discuss international, national and social issues from different perspectives, so as to gain a better understanding of the world around them,” Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun said in 2005 when she was permanent secretary for education and manpower.

Students repeatedly staged protests outside their schools in sympathy with the anti-government movement that emerged last year. Photo: Jonathan Wong

But within 11 years of its adoption, liberal studies has become a deeply divisive topic and even labelled a disaster by the same man who initially backed its creation, former leader Tung Chee-hwa.

Pro-establishment figures blame the subject for breeding a generation of students who are fundamentally opposed to the Chinese central government and resent Beijing’s hand in local affairs. In her policy address on Wednesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced extensive reforms were on the way after warning months earlier the education sector could not become a “chicken without a coop”.

But how did a plan that began with such soaring intentions come crashing down so quickly?