Hong Kong schools must teach respect for different views to heal divides in society

Kerry Kennedy argues for the need for a common curriculum of civic education that prepares students for the rights and duties of being a citizen, bearing in mind Hong Kong’s unique status as an SAR of China

Reading Time:3 minutes

Hong Kong’s civic education has been referred to as “fractured”. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 5:33pm, 11 Jan 2018Updated: 7:08pm, 11 Jan 2018

Recently, there has been much talk of laws concerning the national anthem, the teaching of Chinese history, the jailing of activists (followed by abuse heaped on judges for doing so) and the rightness or otherwise of co-location arrangements for immigration controls for the new high-speed train connection.

In these contexts, people inevitably take sides in what are complex political disputes, out of which there must inevitably be winners and losers.

This is not the way to create a civil society, where there is a tolerance for diverse views, a respect for differences of opinion and a willingness to listen and consider ideas from different perspectives.

Forgotten in all the rhetoric is the need for societies to treasure the broad range of views within them and benefit from them. This starts in the home and should be carried on in the schools.

Yet, at the moment, Hong Kong’s schools reflect the troubled nature of Hong Kong society.

Some support the moral and national education curriculum that was shelved in 2012, while others support a more pro-democracy approach using a variety of sources. Yet others back the continuation of the direction of the 2001 curriculum reforms that established civic and moral education as a key theme. This was reinforced in 2009 with the introduction of the new senior secondary curriculum.