Front-line educators should be the first to digest pivotal concepts of national security and Hong Kong’s constitutional foundation, as they are tasked with passing on the knowledge to the students, said Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a former president of the city’s Legislative Council.
Fan is also chairman of the management committee of the Endeavour Education Centre, which is responsible for providing such a training course for teachers, principals and school sponsoring bodies.
These professional training courses for teachers serve as a key starting point to strengthen students’ respect for the rule of law as currently many teachers may have only scratched the surface of the nation’s Constitution and the city’s Basic Law, Fan said.
According to Article 10 of the National Security Law that came into effect on June 30, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall promote national security education in schools and universities and through social organisations, the media, the internet and other means to raise the awareness of Hong Kong residents of national security and of the obligation to abide by the law.
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According to the Education Bureau’s website, the 18-hour training course, in collaboration with the center, covers national security, the Constitution and the city’s Basic Law, as well as how the rule of law is maintained in the city.
These professional training courses for teachers serve as a key starting point to strengthen students’ respect for the rule of law as currently many teachers may have only scratched the surface of the nation’s Constitution and the city’s Basic Law, Fan said.
During the six sessions, which stretch over three days, Fan said a number of prominent speakers from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, who are experts in the Constitution, the Basic Law and the National Security Law, share their legal knowledge with the teachers. Discussions with the experts are also held.
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Speakers include the first secretary for justice Elsie Leung Oi-Sie, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee Maria Tam Wai-chu, and Basic Law Committee member Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, according to the EDB website.
By giving the frontline teachers an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the city’s constitutional framework, which an ordinary resident may find “rather complicated”, Fan said the objective of the courses is to build up teachers’ confidence. “So when they go into the classroom, then they would be able to explain things clearly and get the message across,” she said.
Other than professional training, Fan said a proper set of teaching materials is also of paramount importance. In her opinion, the teaching manual should be fun reading for the students, as well as provide an acutal picture of the SAR’s constitutional relationship with the nation.
National security is an organic part of the training, highlighted by the city’s newly enacted National Security Law, which Fan said has restored public order.
She said people from all walks of life in Hong Kong are feeling safer and they have regained their freedom of speech and mobility rights.
“Particularly for the small business owners, who own a restaurant or small retail shop, they feel more secure now because their livelihood had been adversely affected by the vandalism, threatened by the rioting activities by the black-clad protesters,” she said.
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a former president of the city’s Legislative Council, talks about national security issues in education. (PARKER ZHENG /CHINA DAILY)
Meanwhile, ordinary residents no longer need to live in fear of being beaten up while discussing politics on the streets, and drivers don’t have to worry about being caught in the roadblocks set up by radicals, Fan said. Changes can also be seen in prominent opposition figures, some of whom have even made a U-turn claiming that they never supported separatism, she said.
Opposition lawmakers are now no longer able to mislead voters that separatism is viable, she added.
On Monday, the government issued a formal notice to government departments, requiring civil servants who joined after July 1 to sign a statement or take an oath to confirm they will uphold the Basic Law and swear allegiance to the HKSAR.
Fan said this is a perfectly natural procedure to remind new recruits that they should not do anything to undermine the SAR. She also slammed those who express doubts about it, saying they are “trying to make things difficult” without any reasonable grounds.
