Delay Liberal Studies reform no more! Society’s well-being at stake

The planned overhaul of the Liberal Studies curriculum is unarguably long overdue, and should be welcomed by anyone who genuinely cares for the city. It is thus disappointing that the Education Bureau further delayed the much-needed reform by announcing another month of consultations and briefings on the matter on Tuesday.

Because of the defect in curriculum design that allows teachers to use textbooks and teaching materials without the need to pass a regulatory review, many unscrupulous teachers who prioritize their own ideological beliefs or political persuasions over the interest of students have made the subject a handy tool to brainwash young students who are idealistic, intrinsically impulsive but not politically savvy, and turned many of them into foot soldiers doing their bidding.

A case in point is the malicious maneuvers of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, a highly politicized teacher association that shares common political persuasions with the opposition camp in Hong Kong. In one of its widely reported maneuvers, the group compiled a batch of teaching materials on “Occupy Central” in 2013 before the launch of that illegal campaign in fall 2014, with the purpose of indoctrinating young students with pernicious ideas and beliefs and radicalizing them in preparation for “Occupy Central”. They appointed political demagogue Benny Tai Yiu-ting as the adviser, who was tasked to review those teaching materials. Tai, infamous for preaching “breaking the law to achieve justice” in his capacity as an associate law professor, was sentenced by the court to 16 months in prison for two public-nuisance offenses for his role in the “Occupy Central” campaign, which he co-organized.

The consequences of relentless and pernicious indoctrination by unscrupulous teachers, many of whom are members of the HKPTU, have proved to be disastrous to Hong Kong society, as the whole world has witnessed during the months-long violent campaign perpetrated by black-clad rioters, many of whom are young people, including high school students, in the second half of 2019. The political demagogues, operating under the mask of educators, must have been chuckling. They have been so successful in radicalizing Hong Kong youth: More than 40 percent of the 10,000-plus lawbreakers arrested by police during the 2019 social unrest are students, the youngest only 11.

It surprised few when those political demagogues launched a vilifying campaign against the planned overhaul, with accusations that the move is designed to “kill the soul” of the school subject or “murder” the subject. The Education Bureau must be alert to the ploys of those demagogues. At stake is not only the well-being of students and their parents but also that of Hong Kong society.