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Should teachers be loyal to students or the government? | Tin Fong-chak

蘋果日報 2020/12/06 10:24


The SAR government announced that all civil servants in Hong Kong must sign a declaration or take an oath confirming the upholding of the Basic Law and allegiance to the city. The Chief Executive also said in an earlier interview that she would consider including teachers from subsidized schools to be covered under the regulation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, which stipulates, “When taking up public office...confirm or swear allegiance to the government.” However, teachers are not government employees so it is difficult to talk about public office. On the other hand, is it necessary for them to swear allegiance to the government as an education profession?
In Hong Kong, there is no strict definition of public servants, but generally speaking, unless otherwise restricted by the law, the definition in Chapter 1 of the “Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance” of the Hong Kong Laws applies. Public servants “means any person holding an office of emolument under the government, whether such office be permanent or temporary.” In Hong Kong’s education system, government school teachers are civil servants. However, in the vast majority of aided and direct subsidy scheme (DSS) schools, the employer of the teachers is the incorporated management committee (IMC), which is in turn subsidized by the government. Therefore, the majority of teachers have no employment relationship with the government, and have nothing to do with the government in terms of job arrangement, salary, or punishment, etc. They do not fall under the category of “holding an office of emolument under the government,” hence there is no reason to follow the oath-taking policy tied to public officials.
Teachers’ loyalty pledge is essentially a part of the government’s control of society. In the past year, the SAR government has been tightening civil liberties under the pretext of the epidemic and social movements. The government has created a state of white terror in the education sector through unreasonable investigations and punishment, interference on private speech in social media, pro-China public opinion on the public review of teachers and teaching materials, and the disciplinary cancellation of teacher registration.
However, the current mechanism still has certain procedures and justifications, and also needs to be linked to professional misconduct. There is no need to involve education if the oath-taking policy is to include teachers. In today’s political climate, anyone labeled as “anti-China” will take the risk of being stripped of their business or professional registration, and very likely to be held criminally liable. The deterrent effect on teachers will be more effective and the enforcement will be easier. In the end, teachers will become silenced and obedient, achieving the goal of comprehensive control of the education sector.
The core question is, should teachers be loyal to the government, or should they be loyal to their profession and the students they serve? In many places, physicians undertake the “Hippocratic Oath,” and swear to treat the ill to the best of their ability as part of their graduation ceremony. The inspiration is that professionalism is about service to the profession and responsibility to those we serve.
A few years ago, the trade union of education in Finland, Opetusalan Ammattijärjestö (OAJ), initiated a teachers’ pledge to the Comenius’ Oath. Teachers would vow to do their best for the next generation, for the culture and education of the society, and for the development and well-being of the students. The Comenius’ Oath is an internationally acclaimed pledge, but it is not an oath of allegiance to a political regime.
In Hong Kong, the Council on Professional Conduct in Education (CPC), where half of the seats are elected by teachers, has developed a “Code for the Education Profession” that addresses the obligations of the profession to students, colleagues, parents, employers, and the public. It is a consensus among teachers to be committed to nurturing the pillars of society and being responsible to all sectors of society. After all, Hong Kong teachers understand that the duty of a teacher is to build a solid foundation with a long-term impact on students under a quality curriculum, not to indoctrinate them politically, nor to be accountable to the government.
In recent years, the Education Bureau has been promoting the official version of professional ethics in an attempt to dwarf the status of the CPC, while another teacher organization, Hong Kong Teachers’ Centre, has been abolished for audit reasons. The government is gradually monopolizing the definition of professionalism. Once the oath-taking policy is enforced, the private sector or classroom teaching that fails to cooperate with political propaganda for one country, two systems may face charges of professional misconduct or other offences of misconduct, and the education profession will completely collapse.
As a teacher in the past, you only need to be accountable to students and parents and be responsible for your profession. The authorities have always said that they oppose political interference in education, but now they are using the power of the regime to interfere in education, so how can they create a safe education environment to cultivate talents? It is Hong Kong’s educational profession and its future that is being lost by tightening controls, creating turmoil, and driving talents away.
Nowadays, teachers can only continue to adhere to their professional autonomy and try their best to leave a small footprint in Hong Kong education.
(Tin Fong-chak, Vice President of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union)
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