Hong Kong Moral and National Education

Do you think moral and national education should be abolished? Moral and national education had recently become a hot topic in Hong Kong. Moral and national education is a school curriculum proposed by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong, it s transformed from the current moral and civic education. The Education Bureau stated that it is to cultivate “positive values and attitudes” in students. Schools are forced to make it into an independent subject and teachers will teach according to curriculum given by the Education Bureau.

However, the society suspected that it is brainwashing, they express their concerns through forming associations like Scholarism and marching. National Education should have included different perspectives for students to know more about their country and citizenship. Instead of letting students know about their country thoroughly, the information is carefully selected by the government. Of the 19 references, 18 of them were written by mainland Chinese. There are no references from local or foreign scholar, no diverse views and different interests.

They are all one-sided view of China and neglected lots of important issues such as the development in human rights and democracy in China. Such references and handbooks are inappropriate to use as teaching materials. Hong Kong schools already have liberal studies, civil education and Chinese history, content of lessons are overlapped. Students are overburdened by homework, test and examination. Schools and teachers are rushing through the syllabus of HKDSE. Time is tight for both school and students, another compulsory subject is not needed. This creates more pressure and stress than the benefit it might have on the major stakeholders.

The curriculum guide for the evaluation of student’s performance is also being worried. Students have to be emotionally touched in order to show their patriotism. It focuses students to dissemble or to fake their feelings in order to get higher marks, it is not a proper way of education. Along with contents that praises the Communist China, “advanced, altruistic and united governing body” with characteristics that “ensuring stable governance, protecting wholeness of country”. Students are to be brainwashed and to love their country blindly. Extreme nationalism and patriotism can easily leads to war just because of a little conflict (WW1).

In my opinion, a moral and civic education curriculum committee should be set to draw up guide lines and design the teaching materials. It should be consist of trained teachers, parents and people from different parts of the society. The curriculum committee can also monitor the implantation of this subject or whether it should become a subject at school. With all the rejections and disagreements from professional teachers, parents and even students themselves, the government should understand their concerns and go for a more opened approach.