Hong Kong pupils will learn more about the history of the Communist Party on trips to mainland China. Photo: BloombergEducation authorities in Hong Kong have pledged to reinforce the national spirit of the city’s pupils. They plan to incorporate additional components covering the history of the Communist Party and the struggles of its significant figures for primary and secondary school student trips to mainland China.
The Education Bureau also said the move aligned with national calls to promote patriotic education, with the excursions in the coming school year to include visits to museums, memorial halls and sites of historical relevance to the party.
Authorities are planning 81 cross-border trips, each to last one to six days, for students in Primary Four and upwards under an annual outline for mainland exchange programmes.
In the circular, the bureau called for schools to “proactively arrange” for students to take part in the exchanges.
“Mainland exchange programmes and study tours for students form an important part of national education … [helping] enable primary and secondary students to gain first-hand experience of our country’s development from multiple perspectives, deepen what they have learned in class, enhance their understanding of our country and strengthen their sense of national identity,” it said.
The government earlier said the programmes had an annual quota of more than 100,000 students, meaning each pupil in the city could join at least once in primary school and again during their secondary education.
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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu last October announced in his annual policy address that the city government would integrate patriotic education into the local curriculum.
The bureau said on Monday that it would introduce more elements covering party history as part of the cross-border trips.
“In line with [promoting] patriotic education, ‘red resources’ will be heightened in the itineraries for the new school year, including visits to historical sites, museums and thematic memorial halls,” it said.
“[The red resources aim] to enhance students’ understanding of the revolutionary stories and struggles of revolutionary predecessors, thereby nurturing their national spirit,” the bureau’s document said.
Thirty of the 81 trips listed in the circular noted that red resources would feature as part of the excursions.
The list of trips covers cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Guangdong, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
In one case, Form Three to Five students were expected to visit Beijing’s Museum of the Communist Party of China as part of a five-day trip.
“The learning focus is to understand the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s development in different periods and how it dealt with different challenges,” the bureau said.
The trip’s itinerary also includes a visit to the Xibaipo Memorial Museum, where students will learn how the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the People’s Liberation Army used the small village in Hebei province as their headquarters during the civil war in the ‘40s.
Students on some trips will each need to pay about HK$1,400 (US$179) to HK$1,800, while Hong Kong authorities will cover the remaining 70 per cent of the cost.
The bureau also said past mainland trips organised and subsidised by authorities had been well received by schools and parents over the years.
The bureau has been stepping up its effort to promote patriotism among students since the 2019 anti-government demonstrations.
Education authorities in 2021 revamped liberal studies, a core subject for senior secondary pupils, into citizenship and social development, as well as establishing the citizenship, economics and society subject, which will roll out next month for junior secondary students.
Both subjects focus on understanding national security and strengthening pupils’ sense of national identity.
The bureau has also announced that from the 2025-26 school year, it will break general studies into science and humanities subjects to allow for a greater emphasis on patriotism at a primary school level.