Hong Kong education minister deplores boycott after thousands of secondary students say they will heed Demosisto’s calls to skip Monday classes weekly over protest demands
- Kevin Yeung says boycott will disrupt operations of schools and sow discord on campuses
- Survey by group and other student concern bodies of 19,473 respondents finds 89 per cent backing protesters’ demands
Hong Kong’s education minister on Friday sought to discourage secondary school students from boycotting classes when school resumes next month, after a survey found thousands of them backed such action to protest against the now-shelved extradition bill.
Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said on his Facebook page that there were other ways for students to express their opinions and there should not be political interference in classrooms, a position that both the Education Bureau and schools agreed on as they were opposed to boycotts.
“Apart from affecting the normal operations of schools, this will also deprive students of normal learning opportunities and even affect emotions, bring about pressure and disrupt harmonious campuses,” he wrote.
Yeung also said he and his colleagues had since Thursday been meeting representatives from the education sector to understand their situation and help them prepare for the resumption of classes on September 2.
A bureau spokeswoman added that guidelines would be provided for schools to handle the situation.
