Kerry Kennedy

Opinion | National security education: policy talk won’t lead to real action

It must be recognised that scattered initiatives, no matter how important, 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

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

The flags of China and Hong Kong are flown at a school in Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg

Kerry Kennedy

Published: 8:30am, 2 Sep 2020Updated: 8:34am, 2 Sep 2020

Schools are currently being deluged with “advice” on education about national identity and the national security law, and even kindergartens are being urged to implement national identity education. This is on top of the previously developed requirements for secondary schools regarding Basic Law education and the cross-curriculum priority of civic and moral education.

For both primary and secondary schools, the emphasis on national security education comes directly from the national security law itself (Article 10), and the focus on national identity is as old as the post-handover curriculum. Yet, it is problematic to regard these simply as add-ons to existing curriculum requirements. While it is easy to issue instructions, it is much more difficult to ensure effective implementation.

This point should be clear to officials in the Education Bureau. National identity education has been part of the Hong Kong curriculum since 2001. Former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa was an ardent supporter of infusion of national identity education across the new curriculum. Yet, almost 20 years later, schools and kindergartens are still being urged to implement it.

The lesson is this: articulating a policy or priority is the easy part; securing support for it, consulting schools about it, providing resources to explain it and helping teachers understand where it fits into the curriculum is the challenging part. Without these processes, resistance can harden in an already pressurised education system, messages can become confused and very little may happen as a result. Policy without strategic implementation is failed policy.

How to prevent such failure? There first needs to be a recognition that fragmented and scattered initiatives, no matter how important they are seen to be, will rarely be taken up if issued as instructions, or conveyed as aspirations. Imagine running a business like that. If there are to be changes to the curriculum, they need to be planned, explained, discussed broadly, trialled and redeveloped so they meet the needs of schools and the community in general.

05:50

What you should know about China's new national security law for Hong Kong

These are basic processes to be followed by establishments contemplating new initiatives. A top-down approach has rarely worked and there is no reason it will in future.

Opinion | National security education: policy talk won’t lead to real action

It must be recognised that scattered initiatives, no matter how important, 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

It must be recognised that scattered initiatives, no matter how important, 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