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Kerry Kennedy
Kerry Kennedy is professor emeritus and adviser (academic development) at The Education University of Hong Kong. He was formerly director of the Centre for Governance and Citizenship and dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Patriotic education needs a clear approach or it risks failing like previous efforts. Teachers must be prepared and students must know what they are expected to learn.
Patriotic education is not a new idea. Countries including the US and the UK offer some form of it to build support for a nation. For Hong Kong, it is important to identify patriotic knowledge, skills and values before disseminating them to students and non-students alike.
While the government is going all out to attract talent from around the world, it should not neglect young potential in the city. A local talent development strategy must start with asking what kind of graduates we need and how we can align priorities to ensure the system is capable of producing such graduates.
Students are adjusting to an essentially new learning environment after years of Covid-19 restrictions, isolation and fears, which requires new thinking about support.
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Teachers need time and support to get to grips with national education subjects and put together new lessons and materials. Metrics must also be agreed on for assessing exactly what students are taking away from these lessons, and whether changes need to be made.
Instead of channelling students into schools classified into bands based on academic performance, specialist secondary schools focusing on specific skills should be set up. Schools should not be academic satellites floating silently at the edge of society, but an integral part of the community.
Graduates need more than skills and knowledge – they must be creative problem-solvers capable of innovative thinking and working in teams. They must also learn to prioritise the needs of the community over individual freedom and understand how to deal with ‘fake news’.
Allowing schools to devise their own strategies to teach national security not only puts the burden on overworked staff, but could also lead to varying outcomes. Teaching it as part of a broader education on Hong Kong’s civic life would ensure a fuller understanding.
The Basic Law also does not specifically prohibit teaching about the pro-independence movement, raising questions over the grounds on which he was deregistered.
In the context of national security education, it must be recognised that scattered initiatives will rarely be taken up if issued as instructions. If there are to be changes, they need to be planned, discussed broadly, and developed in the context of a civic education curriculum.
Speculation about the impact of the law must give way to a democratic agenda crafted for these post-security law times. Democratic development will benefit not just Hong Kong, but also help it fulfil its role as China’s international city.
Valuing ideology over free inquiry is damaging in the long run. Helping young people become critical thinkers will foster the creativity and innovation needed to ensure a prosperous future for Hong Kong.
Recent weeks have highlighted the power of democratic institutions. New district council members must be ambassadors of democracy in action while pro-democracy parties should draft policies that show they can be more than an opposition force.
Violence on either side should not obscure the valid public concerns that continue to fuel huge protest turnouts. An unequal society is at the root of it all, and it is high time peaceful protesters and an amenable government came to the table.
Having suppressed dissent in multiple ways, the government is now living with the consequences. If issues can’t be discussed openly, they will be discussed in the echo chambers of social media, and radical solutions will be sought.
The government may have thought the sentiment behind Occupy was over and done with, but research shows that the feelings of alienation and dissatisfaction never left Hong Kong youth.
Existing guidelines on music education in Hong Kong already emphasise respect for the Chinese and other national anthems. At the same time, a school’s role is to educate, and neither to indoctrinate nor police students.
The education system needs to be reformed at every level. Schools should be less exam-oriented, vocational education should not be second best, and the University Grants Committee should nurture creativity, not nip it in the bud.
The Hong Kong government’s education reforms have not addressed the right problems, focusing on Chinese history and the influence of ‘liberal studies’ when they should think about training students for the technology of the future
Hong Kong needs a common curriculum of civic education that prepares students for the rights and duties of being a citizen, bearing in mind the city’s unique status as an SAR of China.
The uncivil behaviour displayed by students in the row over pro-independence posters on university campuses runs counter to democratic values such as tolerance, fairness and open-mindedness
Kerry Kennedy says self-financed undergraduate students and their institutions who accept this largesse should also understand their obligation to give back to society after they graduate
