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Friday, September 25, 2020, 09:01
National Security Law puts patriotism on right course
By Chen Zimo in Hong Kong
Friday, September 25, 2020, 09:01 By Chen Zimo in Hong Kong


One high school headmaster in Hong Kong said the newly implemented National Security Law will ensure the school continues its long-standing patriotic tradition after facing mounting pressure last year to drop its flag-raising ceremony during the social unrest.

Hui Chun-lung, headmaster of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers (HKFEW) Wong Cho Bau Secondary School, told China Daily in an exclusive interview that the Tung Chung school will hold a large-scale flag-raising ceremony on Oct 1 to mark National Day, two days after the school fully resumes face-to-face classes.

For teachers and students, loving the nation and the city has always been the philosophy in running the school, said Hui Chun-lung, headmaster of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers (HKFEW) Wong Cho Bau Secondary School

“We keep this tradition alive because we want our students, besides having a joyful moment together, to recognize the close relationship between Hong Kong and the country,” Hui said.

A year ago, the ceremony was more tense than joyous. On Sept 2, 2019, some 1,200 students from the school and its sister primary school marked their new semester by holding a flag-raising ceremony.

The tradition was threatened by a widespread call to boycott schools, as well as chaotic traffic scenes after the Tung Chung MTR station, a key transport link to the school, was vandalized.

The radicals targeted the traffic leading to the city’s international airport in the same district in attempt to force it to shut down.

“I think that the enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong gave them a firm belief that their continued understanding and caring about their motherland was the right thing to do,” Hui said.

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Labeled as a “conventional patriotic school”, the secondary school bore the brunt of some “unflattering reviews” that verged on harassment during the social unrest, Hui said. But society has grown to recognize the school’s value after it stayed true to its philosophy during the challenging time.

For teachers and students, loving the nation and the city has always been the philosophy in running the school, and the pursuit of knowledge, the right values and responsibility to society are what the school aims for, the educator said.

This semester, one more thing has been added to the agenda — national security education. The veteran educator believes national security education will fall into place naturally with its established and long-standing patriotic education mechanism serving as a firm foundation.

Promotion of the National Security Law, along with the Basic Law — the city’s constitutional document and the nation’s Constitution — are at the heart of national education in school, he said.

With the changing social circumstances, national education in the school has gradually shifted to developing a sense of responsibility for the motherland and compliance with the law, Hui said. In the past, the subject mainly involved knowledge of Chinese history and traditional culture.

The historical and cultural background has laid a solid foundation for the new subject in the new semester, Hui said. For example, provided with the nation’s modern history before 1949 and diplomatic developments after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, teachers and students are better placed to understand the necessity for a National Security Law today.

READ MORE: End misperceptions of HK youths

Hui has suggested that teachers can draw a comparison with similar laws in other countries to give students a broader picture. For example, the National Security Law for Hong Kong is more “liberal” than the United States’ Patriot Act, which was signed into law following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in an effort to dramatically tighten US national security, he said.

This, Hui said, requires the teachers responsible for teaching courses related to the National Security Law to have extensive knowledge of the area themselves. He suggested that the Hong Kong government provide teachers with training in the field of national security education. This would not only offer students professional, standardized teaching, but could reduce the current pressure on the city’s teachers, he said.

Most importantly, he said, the textbooks or class teaching on the National Security Law must “explain the profound things in a simple language” and relate them to the students’ everyday life, instead of “merely telling them the 66 stipulations of the law”.

“I want our students to see that the country needs national security legislation to fend off extraneous dangers, just as a family staying alert to the outside world to protect their family members,” he said.

mollychen@chinadailyhk.com


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