after the protests in 2019 Hong Kong schools are no longer the same we have to revise all teachings materials one by one modu by modu chapter by chapter the Catalyst for these changes the National Security Law so prohibit the seven types of um offenses that will undermine National Security under article three so this is a time for some Resolute action that law had the instant effect of subduing the riots which rocked P for months could the legislation be behind Mass teacher resignations teachers who have quit the force or who have retired are more on the side of having more experience and falling student enrollment we are facing a a really serious problem where a lot of schools are have Surplus You Know Places the government has to think about you know how to handle this problem how will Hong Kong's education sector emerge from this upheaval when I first time get there to have the work I didn't aware that it is a village I can't believe that is a kind of um rural Village in England one year ago low kitling migrated from Hong Kong to the [Music] UK it's her midweek day off and she's come to a cafe near the village where she teaches to unwind before I come to England I've got 70 years of teaching experience and luckily I've got a job here also that it will be it will be the 18th years for me to to be a teacher Lo was part of the Ferocious departure tide of teachers from Hong Kong it is a term used by the Hong Kong Association of heads of secondary schools HK ahss and Hong Kong's Center for international student assessment hkca in their joint report to describe an exodus of Education workers from the territory since 2020 in the preceding years on average is about 2100 uh dropouts from the teaching force in public sectors and of course compared to now which have gone gone up from 5,000 plus to 7,000 plus I think the difference is quite substantial in the Academic Year ending 2022 about 6,550 primary and secondary school teachers resigned or retired almost double the average of around 3,600 before 2021 this year's attrition rate could exceed 7,500 since 2021 across all levels the total number of teachers who left the profession hit above 12,000 but the Hong Kong education policy concern organization which advises the government on education matters stops short of calling it a crisis now in terms of numbers teachers shortage does not exist on an impressive scale because um as long as the the new recruits can satisfy the minimum requirements that is getting a a degree from from recogn University they can register become uh a teacher what is a bit worrying is that because teachers who have quit the fors or who have retired are more on the side of having more experience higher seniority in service which are most important for the SM smooth Pro uh progress of any school based on a survey by the hkah HSS there was a sharp rise in the turnover rate of teachers with more than 10 years experience from around 37% in the Academic Year of 2018 2019 to 54% by the next 2 years schools have to make do with less experienced less senior young teachers who have yet to prove their interest and also capability in in a school en environment why are the teachers leaving the profession one survey conducted by the professional teachers union May provide some answers four out of 10 teachers who intend to leave expressed dissatisfaction toward education policies and growing political pressure the survey was done in 2021 just after Hong Kong enacted the National Security Law in 2020 2019 Hong Kong was rocked by the largest protest in its history it started as a demonstration against an amendment to The Fugitive offenders Ordinance one that would allow for the extradition of fugitives in Hong Kong to Mainland China for trial the anti-extradition rally soon snowballed into larger calls for Democratic reforms at the very beginning uh people will be thinking that the system will remain the same uh when British left Hong Kong l a million China took over the system will be almost the same but later on people realize that central government has become more assertive then central government tried to step in and also try to um point to Hong Kong's uh very much like Lively food management everything uh in Hong Kong by late August the protest turned violent demonstrators and police clashed in the streets the protests peted out when the coid pandemic hit but by then there were at least two deaths and thousands of injuries in the aftermath the national security law was enacted by the central government to prevent a repeat of 2019 it criminalizes four acts secession subversion terrorist activities and collusion with a foreign country or external elements 2019 is really a terrible year you from our memories with all the streets violence with all the uh beating of people so thanks to the enactment and also the implementation of the National Security Law peace and stability have become have restored very very quickly that law had the instant effect of subduing the riots which rocked Hong Kong for months in 29 and in early 220 without the National Security Law we would still be seeing Road blockages riots you know um occupation of attacks on critical infrastructure and attacks on the police even now you you know so we def definitely needed the National Security Law the education sector would come under a microscope youths had led the charge during the protests University students set up campus blockades where bricks and other homemade weapons were stored in the end 40% of the 10,000 people arrested for participating in the movement were students the ches communist party's official newspaper people's daily called Hong Kong's education system poisonous they accuse teacher of teaching student uh liberal mindset and also play a lot of pleasure on Hong Kong ass government to change the curriculum one casualty the Hong Kong professional teachers union it was the city's largest teachers union with over 95,000 members Chinese State media accused members of taking part in the protests calling the group a cancer that must be eradicated Under Pressure the group would disband in August 2021 teachers unions were very uh active in Hong Kong's different Arenas they they provide lots of support for teachers many teachers maybe for example suffering from something contract issue and also some like a bully at school so Li actually ask professional teachers union to help but later on government actually accused of uh this sort of Union of mobilizing people to protest so that's the direct reason of dissolving uh this sort of Union the legislation would also transform school curriculum of particular interest are articles 9 and 10 of the National Security Law article 9 strengthens the Public Communication guidance supervision and regulation over matters concerning National Security including those relating to schools and universities while article 10 promotes National Security education in schools and universities the government has been very keen and prepared to make up for the loss of time in in this uh education areas of course during the colonial days noow body from the government will teach students patriotic education National Education and and also naal security education so uh and even after the Handover of the territory sovereignty to China uh there's not been sufficient uh uh emphasis and also time and resources devoted to these educating areas Dr Hu wtin former lecturer of Education studies at Hong Kong Baptist University was one of those tasked to promulgate the new syllabus to schools and I deliver some professional development talks to the local teachers and also School leaders about Leal education because in Old Days many local school leaders and also teachers don't have any idea about Leal education take for example about the Chinese history they don't know how how the Chinese Communist Party come from that means that they should develop themselves to learn more about Leal education and then putting them the Leal education into the curriculum is the concern of learning and teaching but without clear direction from the education Bureau the roll out of National Security Law education was haphazard leaving some frustrated the management team would just ask you to go to the school library to check about the books whether if there is any potential that we violating the National Security LA and then we get there and work on that and um at the same time we've got the pandemic still some of students still um learn from at home well we have loads and loads of different kinds of work Los that really really abnormal abnormal of course given the speed of uh of uh of the implementation of uh of this different types of Education relating to to the mainland teachers become a little bit pressed in in their feelings you about a work they have to solder so they they do say that they face increasing work pressure because of this um new areas of work to them [Music] but the vague implementation of National Security education would have a more pentious effect without a clear sense of Where The Red Line lies some feared running a foul of the law the national government W that want that kind of cheating effect so in general they will be saying that uh if you do something uh japanizing Hong Kong's interest then L on they could prosecute you under the common law people are free to do whatever they like unless expressly prohibited by specific statutes so there is nothing in the NSL which prohibits students or teachers from doing anything you know they just have to be careful not to incite Hong Kong Independence or overthrow of Hong Kong authorities in the classroom nonetheless Under This Cloud of scrutiny some teachers decided to leave the profession low was one of them I can't bear such suppression and restriction in in the society that I got used to I try to I I really want to find out a place that I can get back to myself I want to stop a bit the education work in Hong Kong and try to find out something new once object in particular would become the target for Education reform liberal studies [Music] Co caroon has been teaching for the past 24 years 8 years ago she assumed the role of vice principal at chin Juan trade Association Primary School where there are 400 students enrolled apart from teaching English she assists in administrative tasks such as enrolling students and hiring teachers good morning class sit down everyone teaching is generally regarded as a stressful job some degree of attrition is expected many teachers do consider that they under very high um working pressure some teachers and even school principls have chosen to leave the force earlier not everybody of them is willing to work until very last St of the eligible working life in in schools but even so the number of teachers leaving the profession in Hong Kong has raised some alarm the education sector has the greatest number of vacancies followed by transport and Logistics then Healthcare care some reports have pinned the blame on the National Security Law 13 years ago Johnny entered the profession as a liberal studies teacher the mandatory subject was introduced in 2009 for secondary school students to develop critical thinking skills by discussing controversial topics including the state of democracy in Hong Kong Johnny is still teaching and agreed to speak to us under conditions of anonymity but in 2020 the tides turned with the passage of the National Security Law the liberal studies curriculum would come under the microscope we have to revise all teachings materials whether will there be any potential to violate National Security Law one by one module by module chapter by chapter so horrible they just use liberal studies as a kind of scate go for the social arest that's it there was a debate about whether to remove Lio studies but in the past it was a very much um controversial topic because different theories point to different direction but because now it's under National Security Law so local public official tend to be cautious so if they can remove uh Libor studies they definitely will do that because this is safe for uh local public official in 2021 then Hong Kong chief executive krie lamb admitted to deficiencies in the city's National Education that same month liberal studies was renamed citizenship and Social Development or CSD which which aims to Foster student sense of national identity Johnny shows us the changes in the curriculum for for to be fair many countries including Singapore have some version of National Education meant to promote a sense of patriotism and national identity it's not unique to Hong Kong you know what we are doing is really to catch up you know to fill the gaps of what we failed to do in the past two decades what the government is promoting is understanding basic understanding of n the importance of National Security the concept of National Security basic understanding of National Security Law we have to Lear our student to make good citizens not just hongan citizen it's also Chinese citizen they must learn about their country history the patent situation uh also the governing parties that's a real situation if the education is successful they will become patriotic but for critics something was lost with the adoption of the new curriculum I would say that the education by definition should be Empower everybody uh let everybody realize their goals and dreams but in China education is much more like a tool to enhance the Communist part's rule so at a very beginning particularly at a very much like early age people need to to be listening to party now they want this model to be repeated in Hong Kong [Music] for as for those who deviate from the approved curriculum some have been reported by students or colleagues for breaching the National Security Law our education panel in the legislative Council has received a lot of complaints about teachers hijacking the classroom to promote anti-china views and misrepresenting Hong Kong's political system you know because for example teachers and even some textbooks which kept saying Hong Kong has separation of powers that is not true Hong Kong was governed under a strictly executive Le system so a lot of teachers and textbook writers deliberately distorted our system to spread falsehoods in the classroom that's we should stop if National Security is taught properly there will be no um limitation no damage to freedom of expression or freedom of academic instruction nearly all teach will comply with this kind of rule of Regulation but once they broke this kind of rule of Regulation they will afford minimum consequence they will get fir by the school [Music] for Johnny after more than a decade in teaching he is giving serious thought to quitting he plans to migrate to the UK for for when he leaves he will become part of Hong Kong's immigration wave an exodus of people from the city beginning in 2020 and this has left many a classro [Music] empty anah and benice are enjoying their holidays after sitting for their diploma of secondary education examination or dsse for these recent secondary school graduates it is a calm after the storm their final semesters were disrupted by a revolving door of teachers [Music] as experienced teachers leave the profession in record numbers the education Bureau solution solution is to expand recruitment but rushing novice teachers into the job can be turbulent for students the changes have been difficult for some teachers as well September marks the start of a new term Bobo Begins the second year of her career at a new school under a rotation scheme for junior staff I feel excited I can't wait to see my new cast of course I feel more comfortable R step into the cast and no more hesitation compared with the last year at her previous school she saw seven teachers leave most of them having been in the profession for a long time when the experienced teacher has been left which mean that I have to take over her job or his job so I let a mentor I have to face the problem myself yeah and I have to try to figure out the the solution for example for those project has been already followed by her for several year suddenly she left yeah is difficult even they have to assign Mentor Mentor is different from a teacher they don't have such a responsibility to teach you how to teach to teach you how to do with all those stuff they only give you a certain guideance so as a a teacher we also have to um learn we also have to learn myself as the experience teacher has already been left meanwhile at the twin one trade Association Primary School principal chiao kimho leads a team of fresh faces into the new school term [Music] Hong Kong may have experienced a loss of teachers yet it may not be facing a teacher shortage because at the same time student enrollment in the special administrative region is dwindling the birth rate is lowering and people immigrating away from Hong Kong is not stopping yet it it's still you know people are still going away so so the average number of students are still dropping so we are facing a a really serious problem you where you know a lot of schools are have a surplus you know places so the government has to think about you know how to handle this problem more than 64,000 according to official figures that's the number of students who withdrew from Hong Kong's education system in the last 2 years part of The Exodus was caused by the immigration wave which began in 2020 possibly due to shrinking civil liberties and strict zero coid measures many Hong kongers left for places like Australia Canada and the UK I do believe that they moved here move to the UK is because of the education because the standard here is quite high it's quite satisfactory so that's why they move here um most of them a family the official figures you know uh of people immigrated away from Hong Kong was already about 200,000 and the actual figure that we heard you know from from the city is is a lot more than that and one of the important thing is most of the immigrating families you know uh uh middle-age families uh parents who are about you know 30 or 40 years of age and they will bring with them their kids so that's a a very serious you you know shortage of students in Hong Kong and that brings about the surplus of schools and classes in Hong Kong the education Bureau predicts that the student population will fall by 15% in the next 6 years ironically this has given principles and administrators some breathing room the relatively large scale departure of students from the local schools has helped the government to solve the the So-Cal teacher Sage problem because much few teachers are a wanted in this days and at the same time the teacher student rcio has has also become improved so that teachers for more time to take care of the students both academically and also in terms of their personal growth Etc okay let's read this teacher student ratio in Hong Kong has gone from 1 to 14 10 years ago to 1 to 12 research shows that having less students per teacher can lead to better education [Music] [Music] outcomes despite this should classes shrink too much it could sound the death nail for some schools to deal with the declining student population our education Bureau is promoting School mergers and the closures of some schools uh which fail to attract students so there's actually no shortage of teachers in fact there could be a surplus of teachers they have to you know kill some schools merge some classes and it's a quite a critical you know moment for a lot of schools and teachers there could be about a 100 schools closing down for the next school year without any further support especially at the financial end from the government it's estimated that around 10% of the kindergartens will also be closed uh in the next year or so and of course that there are students who might change among the schools looking for sits in schools that are more consider more reputable than where they study in originally this trend of students switching to more popular schools is called door knocking it starts even at primary 1 where parents forgo the places given to their children via Central allocation and instead apply to more popular schools you always have this kind of queer cases queer situations especially in recent years when we have a declining enrollment for some of the city schools is no good because that will create the kind of vious competition among the among the schools they must try all all the means of course legitimate to lure students to sign up for vacancies in this less popular schools so an industry shake out is no bad thing in my opinion you know Hong Kong is a free market economy we believe in survival of the fittest I don't think we should keep maintaining schools just for the sake of providing jobs to teachers and head Masters you know for now the education Bureau is taking steps to curb door knocking by reducing the number of such spaces in schools it is also promised not to cut subsidies to schools with falling enrollment but longer term more students would be needed to rejuvenate Hong Kong's education sector and a steady supply of them could be coming from up north at chief executive John Lee's Maiden policy address last year he announced a 2-year top talent pass scheme to attract outside talent to work in the city 2 months after its launch 95% of approved applications were offered to mainlanders close to 100,000 talents are expected to arrive in Hong Kong by the end of this year Deon Chen chairs a council that aims to enhance the quality of private school education some parents when they moved to Hong Kong to work or for investment or for whatever reasons they also would like to bring their famili over definitely their children too after the uh reopen of the Border like in uh the first quarter of 2023 we can see number of the students uh they are returning to Hong Kong are getting higher higher for schools on the brink of shutting down this migration will mean a boost to enrollment of course if more student come to the Hong Kong then at the end I believe that theth authorities if they see the demand then maybe I need to reopen some schools or some school they may not have enough students in the past so they probably have a full house in the future more than 8,600 Chinese students enrolled in Hong Kong's eight publicly funded universities the Academic Year of 2022 it is a 133% jump from the year before should more students from the mainland attend Hong Kong schools at all levels some cultural adjustments can be expected student from Mainland usually the issues they face first of all don't speaking catanese the second one proba the English language standard and also the third one mathematics math mathematics not talking about the ability in doing mathematics about like using English to understand mathematics questions okay children when they are educated in Hong Kong tending to be more independent thinkers student could actually be debating about different things student could be challenging teachers in a typical uh the classroom in China only teachers speak student will not speak they just listen so many of these student come to Hong Kong if they carry this kind of mindset it will change Dynamic so it will make classroom more or less similar to me and China while students from the mainland come to Hong Kong some teachers made the reverse Journey 100 new teachers from Hong Kong visited China on a study tour early this year it was a pioneering program for educators to learn about China's latest advancements and bring this knowledge into classrooms to cultivate students sense of national identity this are mandatory areas which should be done but have not been done well in the past and there's a need to do some some catching up so that's why uh given the the urgency of such work and also the divers University of the curriculum as well as the requirement for some field studies on the mainland it is imperative that the government to give teachers uh enough training and also enough guidelines so that they can work to more uh confidently and uh and effectively on imparting knowledge in these areas organizing activities in these areas for the students some see the benefits of such exchanges in the future but for the student maybe who don't have much more resources maybe they can consider the university in China yeah you know now they the university in China is also a top school in the world it is September the start of a new Academic Year in Hong Kong teacher turnovers C curriculum changes and shifting student compositions these few years have seen Hong Kong school system in a period of upheaval but some observers expect this will soon come to an end after these few years the trend of having higher Dropout rates among the experienced teachers should come to a Hal or at Le a should should snow down I think the next few years should be used by the government and also by the universities to train up more qualified teachers in the past few years we can see some challenges in recruiting or in hiring some experienced teacher but for this school year uh 2023 and 2024 uh we already see a big Improvement so going forward I think we're going to continue to have very strong education sector it will simply take a bit of time to refill the talent we have lost what will emerge is perhaps a transformed education sector a transformation that some welcome so I I guess you know in in one or two years when all the teachers you know when everything settled down you know all the teachers in Hong Kong I guess most of them will share the same view same political stand and that's a good thing that's a good thing for Kong because you know when all these arguments you know CS are gone so so Hong Kong will be you know on on a new uh stage and then we we we can move on if those who don't feel they can adjust they can do other things you know but I think the younger ones they'll be able to adjust Hong Kong people are good at adaptation and adjustment yet others lament what Hong Kong's schools and the city as a whole may lose it's a very much new Hong Kong under National Security Law so uh basically Hong Kong is no longer a bridge between the West and East this kind of uh CH is ongoing so actually no one know this is a beginning or the end maybe this is just the [Music] beginning
