Candidates taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination sit at least 1.8 meters apart at an examination hall, Hong Kong, on April 24, 2020. (JEROME FAVRE / AFP)
HONG KONG – The Education Bureau (EDB) announced Saturday that it will cease all working relations with the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) after it engaged in propaganda and other political activities.
In a statement on Saturday evening, a spokesman for the EDB said the pronouncements and actions of PTU in recent years were inconsistent with what is expected of the education profession, basically making it no different from a political organization.
“Over the past years, it has been actively and closely participating in the Civil Human Rights Front and Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China,” the statement reads.
The spokesman said the EDB will no longer have any formal or informal meetings with PTU or its representatives
"It has also urged teachers to launch class boycott, triggering the infiltration of politics into schools. In the social turmoil, some students or even teachers were swayed to take part in violence and unlawful activities."
But instead of shouldering the responsibility of the education profession by guiding or dissuading them, PTU added fuel to fire, contrary to the fundamental principles of education and at the expense of students’ well-being, the statement added.
The spokesman said the EDB will no longer have any formal or informal meetings with PTU or its representatives.
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The EDB will review the advisory committees and related educational bodies under its purview. If they include PTU representatives, the bureau will consider terminating their appointment, not recognizing their membership, refusing their participation in the meetings, or denying their access to the EDB office area for the meetings.
The EDB spokesman also said that, in principle, teacher training courses organized by PTU will no longer be recognized. Effective Saturday, schools should not count teachers’ participation in PTU’s training courses as part of the 150 hours of Continuing Professional Development activities in the three-year cycles.
But in case schools find that certain training courses could be recognized given their special circumstances, they may consult the relevant EDB Senior School Development Officer, he added.
The EDB will also suspend handling cases and concerns raised by PTU, and people concerned may directly contact the bureau, relevant schools or organizations.
The spokesman said that the education sector was hard hit by the political and social turmoil in recent years.
“Some teachers or students had gone astray, while some were even arrested. A professional education organization should uphold professionalism, help teachers demonstrate their professionalism in guiding students to discern right from wrong, teaching students the importance of law-abidingness, and steering them to grow on the right track,” he said.
The spokesman emphasized that the EDB expected all professional education organizations to responsibly fulfill their mission in education
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“However, not only does PTU fail to live up to this expectation, it has been engaging in political propaganda under the guise of being a professional education organization,” he added.
The spokesman noted that, in the “Occupy Central” movement, PTU published teaching resources with contents on civil disobedience for all teachers to teach their students and launched territory-wide class and teaching boycott by teachers, dragging schools into politics.
“Recently, the PTU even openly promotes books that glorify violence,” the spokesman said.
“While PTU claimed itself as a teachers’ union, teachers should, taking due account of its words and deeds, prudently consider if the PTU could genuinely represent them.”
The spokesman emphasized that the EDB expected all professional education organizations to responsibly fulfill their mission in education.
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The bureau will continue to join hands with genuine education professional organizations, in reaffirming its focus on education principles and nurturing the younger generation of Hong Kong, he added.