More than 60% of Hong Kong people oppose the deletion of political issues.

HKUPOP survey says 60% of people are dissatisfied with this General Studies education reform. (Video screenshot)

Under Hong Kong’s national security law, Beijing is trying to take full control of Hong Kong people, in addition to castrating democratic elections and controlling the media, it is also taking a step closer to national education by replacing the original subject of Liberal Studies with the subject of Civic and Social Development. According to a survey, more than 60% of Hong Kong people oppose the deletion of political issues from the subject of Liberal Studies, and some members of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union are worried about the resurgence of brainwashing national education.

After the failure of the Hong Kong government’s brainwashing campaign to force national education in 2012, the Chinese Communist authorities have been deliberately trying to infiltrate and introduce “patriotic education” into schools. With the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law imposing comprehensive restrictions on Hong Kong people, the Hong Kong Education Bureau has announced that it will implement measures to optimize the four core subjects of senior secondary education in the new school year in September, including replacing the subject of Liberal Studies with the subject of “Civic and Social Development” and dividing the subject into three major themes and a study of the mainland. The content and lesson time of the revised curriculum will be about half of the original one, and the examinations will still be compulsory, but the results will only be graded as “up to standard” and “not up to standard”, and only information response questions will be set in the examinations.

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme (POP) released a survey on the revision of the Liberal Studies curriculum on Thursday (April 1), finding that 62% of the respondents objected to the deletion of some livelihood and social and political participation issues from the subject, while 54% also objected to the deletion of half of the curriculum and lesson time. Nearly 40% of the respondents who claimed to be non-democrats also opposed to these two topics.

According to Cheung Rui-fai, a senior Liberal Studies teacher who assisted in the survey, the survey results reflect Hong Kong people’s dissatisfaction with the Hong Kong government’s brutal approach to revise Liberal Studies, and the changes may not be supported by non-democrats.

The Vice President of HKPTU and Liberal Studies teacher Tian Fangze said in an interview with the media that since Liberal Studies has been degraded, the authorities might as well admit that it is an indoctrinated brainwashing national education. Although the content of the curriculum has not been finalized, it is clearly inclined to indoctrination education, and many connoisseurs believe that the subject of Liberal Studies has become history.

For the new subject only set a paper, questions with multiple-choice, short questions, etc., Tian Fangzhe worried that the purpose of the subject will change to require students to have a set position and recite, criticizing the authorities want to use teachers for political propaganda.

Tian also criticized that the implementation of the new subject in September this year was too hasty, in the absence of teacher training, mock test papers, textbooks and other circumstances, it is difficult to do, questioning whether the authorities expect teachers to read from the book.