Hong Kong teachers should report ‘problematic’ study materials to superiors, education minister says
- Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung also says school authorities should be held accountable over any failure in gatekeeping duties
- The Education Bureau has a ‘responsibility to safeguard the quality’ of the city’s teachers, he adds
Hong Kong teachers have a responsibility to report “problematic” study materials to superiors, and school authorities should be held accountable over any failure in gatekeeping duties, according to the city’s education minister.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung was responding to opposition lawmaker and Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) vice-president Ip Kin-yuen’s question on whether his bureau’s decision to penalise five colleagues of a teacher – deregistered over class materials that touched on Hong Kong independence in September – was a form of “collective punishment”, and whether it would apply to others.
Hong Kong teacher at centre of lesson plan row to file appeal on Monday
Three of his colleagues who taught the content in class were given warning letters, while the former principal and vice-principal of the school were reprimanded for lax supervision.
“If teachers receive problematic teaching materials, they should report the matter to their supervisors so amendments could be made,” Yeung said. “If they stay silent, they should be held responsible.”
The bureau also rebutted a survey conducted by the PTU in which more than 70 per cent of 125 city school principals said the teacher’s deregistration lacked sufficient justification and had a negative impact on institutions. The union said some principals questioned the bureau’s definition of spreading Hong Kong independence.
But Yeung insisted that the bureau’s investigations were thorough and based on substantial evidence. He also stressed that authorities had a “responsibility to safeguard the quality” of the city’s teachers.
“There may be different views in the community,” Yeung said. “But [the bureau] feels deep regret when a certain group of people has been repeatedly politicising the [incident], instead of looking at the matter from the perspective of professionalism and pupils’ benefits.”
A spokeswoman for the bureau on Tuesday night expressed “extreme regret” over the PTU survey, saying it could “give an impression that [the union] was attempting to meddle with the procedures”, as the deregistered teacher was still in the appeal process.
Education officials had said earlier the lesson plan drafted by the delisted teacher allocated at least 85 minutes on sensitive topics for Primary Five classes, including the banned Hong Kong National Party and independence for Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.
Freedom of speech or Hong Kong independence? More details on education row
A worksheet based on a documentary used in class featured a sound bite from Andy Chan Ho-tin, founder of the separatist party, asking pupils to answer questions such as “What is freedom of speech?” and “Why is the idea of Hong Kong independence being raised?”
The PTU, which argued that the classes focused more on the topic of freedom of speech than independence, has been assisting the teacher. An appeal was filed last month against the authorities’ decision to deregister the teacher.
