Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Image : Part of Hong Kong from the sky shows prosperity but its education bureau is denying historical facts.
Hong Kong does not respect history and its schools are teaching the students and pupils the wrong historical facts and English skills.
After reviewing the general education text books for high school from six publishing houses, the Hong Kong education bureau deleted words such as "the separation of powers" and "civil disobedience". The mainland official media described the deletion as "removal of toxins." As for the junior high school general education textbook, there is also a revised version of the high school textbook in 2020.
Compared with the first edition of July 2019, the photos of the protests for democracy and the June 4th candlelight rally were deleted from the new version of the junior high school textbook. The content of "The Rise of Local Consciousness in Hong Kong" was also deleted. Words including "colonial", "British colony" and "colonial governance" are replaced by other terms while the word "indigenous" is changed to "local". By doing so, it appears that Hong Kong does not respect history and teaching the students the wrong historical facts and English skills.
Junior high school general education "should not be started" textbooks do not need to be reviewed by the Education Bureau
According to the Hong Kong Education Bureau, 129 secondary schools (29%) have set up junior high school general education in the 2019/20 school year.
Since 2019, the bureau pointed out to schools that general education in junior high schools should not be offered, and pointed out that the so-called "textbooks" for general education in junior high schools had not been approved by the Education Bureau. The junior high school general education books do not need to be submitted to the Education Bureau, but according to the bureau's non-"applicable book list" webpage, the "A Collection of Basic Issues for Junior High Schools" published by the Bureau of Arts Publishing Co., Ltd. applies to S. 1 to S. 3 general education subjects, 5 unit books There is a new version this year.
The words "become a British colony" changed to "fall into British rule"
This newspaper flipped through the 2020 revised and early 2019 editions of the "Hong Kong Today" section and found many changes (see table). Some parts are consistent with the revision of the General Education Book of Yaji Senior High School, including the deletion of the phrase "separation of powers" and the change of "indigenous" to "local".
As for the text on the history of Hong Kong, the word "colonization" is deleted or replaced with other words, including the deletion of "Hong Kong has therefore officially become a British colony." It describes that China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997 and not in 2020 or 50 years after 1 July 1997. While the old version states "officially ended the British colonial rule over Hong Kong for more than 150 years", the new version shows instead "the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was formally established" as if Hong Kong SAR is a country and the words "fall into British rule"appear instead of "become a British colony".
Education Bureau : Presenting a pro-official view, over-corrections
Tian Fangze, Vice Chairman of the Education Association, said that the revision method is similar to the earlier changes to the high school general education book, adding pro-organizational viewpoints and avoiding controversies. "Local consciousness words and demonstration photos are all things the government does not want to see." He described some of the amendments as over-corrections, such as "indigenous" being changed to "local", "academic discussions have always had local thoughts and local vocabulary, and it has nothing to do with local sentiments." As for the "colonial" revision, he said that Hong Kong was eliminated in the 1970s. It is out of the list of UN colonies, but for Hong Kong people, "Hong Kong is a British colony" is fact and common sense, and they think that the textbooks presents a pro-official view.
General Education Association: Correctly modify the words objectively?
Huang Jialiang, President of the General Education Association, believes that the amendments are appropriate. Due to social events and controversies, people from all walks of life are concerned about whether the Liberal Studies subject is biased. He believes that the revisions are good because the wordings of the books are uniform and objective, which can protect teachers. However, he said, "I am not familiar with general knowledge, and I am very sensitive when I hear individual words. When I see the teacher use individual words, it means to instill a standpoint in the students." He also stated that he believed that the revision of the term "colonial" did not involve political incidents, and that he believed that it was "holding a righteousness."
Summary
With the over-corrections in place, are Hong Kong schools teaching students and pupils not to be grateful to the United Kingdom for the prosperity Hong Kong has achieved in their timeline? Without United Kingdom and the intelligence and productivity of Hongkongers during hard times in Hong Kong's history, Hong Kong would not have prospered so far before the first SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.
Source : Ming Pao
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