Education Bureau Frowns On Planned Student Strike

The Education Bureau on Wednesday expressed firm disapproval of a planned strike by students next month, in which they are to join a global movement by school children calling for urgent action on climate change.

Local students are planning to strike on the morning of Friday, March 15 – the same day as students in hundreds of other cities around the world – as part of a global grassroots movement.

Details of the Hong Kong protest are still being planned, but it is slated to happen during school hours.

Responding to an RTHK enquiry about the planned strike, the Education Bureau said although it respects the right of students to express their opinions in a "peaceful and legitimate manner", it is opposed to class boycotts.

"Any form of boycott would disrupt order in schools, and interfere with the normal learning of students and operation of schools."

"Schools are where students learn and grow," it said.

The student organisers had told RTHK on Tuesday that they feel a strike during school hours is the only way they'll be heard.

Organisers of the Hong Kong action are taking inspiration from Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who demanded measures to tackle climate change from her own government in a protest outside her country's parliament last year.

The movement then spread to some other countries, including France and Belgium, and even as far as Australia and Japan where children left schools to participate in the protests.