'Govt Not Pressuring Schools With More Site Visits'

Education secretary Kevin Yeung on Sunday denied that the Education Bureau was looking to pressure teachers through more school visits, once a revamped Liberal Studies curriculum was in place.

He told a TV programme that the government only wanted to see whether schools had any difficulties with the reformed curriculum, adding that shortcomings on the mainland, such as the wealth gap, could still be discussed as long as they were based on facts.

Yeung also denied that the national security education working groups, that schools have been asked to set up, were there to monitor teachers and students.

He said the working groups – which will need to submit reports regularly to school sponsoring bodies – were only there to better promote national security.

The Liberal Studies subject has been blamed by pro-Beijing figures for fuelling anti-government sentiment among students during the social unrest of 2019.

Education officials have proposed to reduce the current six modules to three, and to cover only Hong Kong being administered under the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, the country since its reforms and opening up, and the contemporary world.

The Professional Teachers' Union complained that the purpose of the subject was to examine the pros and cons of an issue, but the suggested changes only stressed improvements to the country.

The minister brushed aside suggestions that the reformed Liberal Studies would in fact be equivalent to National Education, saying it would be better to teach students about China through different school subjects.

Mr R, a representative from the HK Students Concern Group Alliance, urged authorities to withdraw the reforms altogether.

"Liberal Studies is one of the only subjects that teach us how to have critical thinking on government policies, and I hope that they are not trying to wipe this out from us."

The 15-year-old and fellow students manned a street booth on Sunday in Causeway Bay, to hand out leaflets protesting against the reforms.

He was also defiant over the national security guidelines issues to the schools, which said students as young as six should be taught about the national security law, and schools should seek police help if they spot potential breaches of the law on campus.

"We definitely feel very angry that they're suppressing schools' freedom or the education freedom," he told RTHK.