Teachers in Hong Kong have been warned to keep themselves and students away from any US Independence Day celebrations as they might breach national security laws, educators have said.
A text message purportedly sent by the principal of a Hong Kong school to staff said the education bureau’s regional education office had reminded them “to be careful about Independence Day activities organized by the US consulate in Hong Kong, and not to participate to avoid violating the national security law and Hong Kong laws.”
The text was published on Edu Lancet, a Facebook page run by a former manager at the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Hans Yeung. It urged staff to be diligent in “protecting” any students who were considering participating, and to discourage them.
Photo: AFP
Another e-mail shared on Edu Lancet told faculty staff that any teacher who received an invitation from an embassy or a foreign organization funded by an embassy must seek permission to attend from the principal for the purpose of “maintaining national security.”
The Hong Kong Education Bureau in a statement said it had enacted policies to help schools “effectively prevent and suppress acts and activities that endanger or are detrimental to national security.”
“Schools have the responsibility to play a good gatekeeper role and to enhance the sensitivity of teachers and students to national security,” it said.
The bureau had enacted “clear guidelines” for schools that required them to “establish school-based mechanisms and formulate appropriate measures, according to their own circumstances and needs, to implement various tasks related to safeguarding national security and national security education,” it added.
The bureau did not answer questions about what laws would be broken by attending any Fourth of July event, or whether such warnings only applied to the US holiday.
Edu Lancet and Yeung, who runs the page to voice concerns from those working with the education system and “expose the current problems,” have been criticized by the Hong Kong government for their posts.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) has said Yeung was “making incitements” from his current home in the UK.
The purported directives fit in with tightening restrictions on Hong Kong’s education system, and a push to have the curriculum focus more on national security.
In 2020, then-Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) blamed the education system for fueling the pro-democracy protests that rocked the city in 2019, setting the tone for an overhaul that is ongoing.
The Hong Kong government has since altered the school curriculum to include teachings on national security in subjects such as English language, music, math and sports, and to focus more on patriotic education.
It has also banned texts it sees as endangering national security and prosecuted authors.
Teachers in Hong Kong have previously said they felt pressure to self-censor for fear of being reported for remarks seen as unpatriotic.
Since the start of the 2023 to 2024 school year, all new teachers in public sector schools, direct subsidy scheme schools and kindergartens are required to sit an exam on Hong Kong’s mini constitution, the Basic Law, and the national security law.
Hong Kong Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin (蔡若蓮) has repeatedly warned of “soft resistance” in schools, and this month said educators had to be vigilant against the infiltration of “hostile forces” through events such as book fairs and extracurricular activities, which “could include undesirable reading materials.”
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