Parents Need to Receive ‘National Education,’ Says Hong Kong Education Bureau

120,000 Hong Kong citizens surrounded Hong Kong's government headquarters, urging the government to cancel the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) brainwashing education in Hong Kong on Sept. 7, 2012 (Tzoi-shu Poon/The Epoch Times)

Parents in Hong Kong will be required to join at least one activity on “National Education” organized by their children’s schools every year, according to the Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB).

The three Performance Indicators (KPIs) listed by the EDB for all publicly funded schools include:

1. Designate a person to plan for school-based national education;
2. Organize school-wide national education activities every year;
3. Organize at least one activity related to national education for parents.

The EDB sent a letter to publicly funded schools on Dec. 13, listing the performance indicators of national education and providing a self-assessment checklist, requiring schools to check whether the 18 indicators have been met according to the list.

“National Education” has not only become a compulsory subject in universities and secondary schools but is also required to become an activity that schools must arrange for parents.

Brainwashing

National education is generally regarded as brainwashing education for Hong Kong students.

In 2012, the national education promoted by HKgov triggered large-scale protests and marches by students, parents, and educators. The government once withdrew the “national education” under pressure.

The textbooks published by the EDB avoid sensitive events in modern China (such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng’s arrival in the U.S. in 2012) but focus on the economic achievements after China’s reform and opening up.

The national education subject requires students to be “proud” of being a citizen of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The EDB also requires teachers to assess whether students are patriotic. The opponents believe that “pride” cannot be forced or used as a grading standard and that the content is biased and will severely brainwash the readers.

National Education Similar to CCP Propaganda

Lily Hu, who participated in anti-national education activities in 2012, was recently interviewed by the Epoch Times. She immigrated from Beijing to Hong Kong in 1994 to complete her secondary and tertiary education.

Hu said, “I have been brainwashed since I was born. The lyrics of children’s songs are all praising the CCP. The CCP has a slogan, ‘Love the Party, Love the Country, Love the People.’ Chinese people easily confuse the three concepts.”

“After I arrived in Hong Kong for several years, when faced with some criticisms of the CCP, I always thought that they were criticizing the Chinese people, and I felt that I was being criticized. I felt an inexplicable urge to argue with them,” said Hu. She frankly said that she hated the CCP after the June 4th incident, but because of this confusion of concepts, she, as a Chinese, is such a snowflake.

She believes Hong Kong’s national education is similar to the CCP’s propaganda.

In the past, primary and secondary education in Hong Kong paid more attention to civic education, that is, the rights and obligations of individuals to participate in social politics, learn about political systems, and discuss civil rights.

The new national education subject forces teachers and students to practically worship the CCP. And that they must accept the concept that the CCP stands for China.

Inheriting the Truth

After the CCP took over Hong Kong, it controlled textbooks and the media. When students could not access the truth, parents and teachers became the fundamental method for learning about history.

Many student leaders in Hong Kong, such as Joshua Wong, the founder of the Hong Kong student activist group Scholarism, and Wong Ji-yuet, spokesperson for the group, have already participated in social movements with their parents when they were children; Most mainland Chinese students who immigrated to Hong Kong also learned about the CCP’s misdeeds through the knowledge from their teachers outside the textbooks.

Although Hu experienced the June 4 incident in Beijing, she admitted that she grew up in the propaganda environment of the CCP and knew little about the facts. During the four years of secondary school in Hong Kong, she learned a lot of historical truths about China.

“Every year on June 4th in our school, a large black June 4th banner hangs down on the third floor of the campus... Once, the class teacher gathered with ten students from mainland China, including me, and talked about the June 4th incident. She told us that in 1989, millions of people in Hong Kong marched amid a typhoon warning to support the student movement in Beijing. I was very surprised,” she couldn’t help laughing.

“At that time, I thought, no wonder the CCP never let the truth spread. If the Chinese people knew that, the CCP might already be done...” “Actually, my teacher just told the facts lightly, and some of us from mainland China discussed it with him. I felt so down to earth and beneficial.”

Hu took her four-year-old son, husband, and nearly 70-year-old mother-in-law to join the parade in 2012 to participate in the anti-national education movement. “I don’t want my children to grow up brainwashed like me.” They marched together, along with her secondary classmates.

Mocked by the CCP Mouthpiece

After the anti-extradition bill movement in 2019, the CCP’s mouthpiece newspaper Ta Kung Pao launched a Cultural Revolution-style critique of Ms. Hu’s secondary school principal. “At that time, my classmates made fun of our teacher and said, ‘congratulations on being on the front page of Ta Kung Pao. This is the most impressive achievement of your life.’” said Hu.

After the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” was passed in 2021, the Director of the EDB told members of the Legislative Council that national security education is part of national education. From February 2021, the Hong Kong government has stipulated that primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong must add national security education content to the curriculum in various subjects, including biology, physics, chemistry, and Chinese, to “cultivate students’ state concepts, national feelings, and national identity,” and the awareness of “protecting national security.”

“It’s ridiculous; even my son thinks it’s ridiculous...” When Ms. Hu was interviewed, she said the Hong Kong government’s approach was like the CCP’s. “When I was young, I studied in Beijing. I did this in both history and Chinese subjects. The CCP’s ideology permeates everywhere,” she added.

However, Hu doesn’t think the new policy of the Hong Kong government will change the parents’ minds. Hu said,“in Beijing, many people don’t have the opportunity to get in touch with the truth, but it’s different in Hong Kong. Parents who know the truth will definitely tell their children, and the truth will be passed down from generation to generation.”