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Hong Kong As It Is

Another big rally staged to demand withdrawal of National Education

The rally started at 5:30pm yesterday, at the Tamar Park next to the Government Headquarters and in front of the Headquarters. Well before 5:30pm, the Park, where a stage was set, was so packed that people were discouraged from entering it. They were urged to go to the front door of the Headquarters.

I left the venue at about 6:30pm. While I saw several people were leaving with me, many more people were coming to join the rally. The rally finished at 10pm, peppered with music and talk. Free spirit filled the air.

The organizer estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 people had turned out for the rally, despite the rain.

Three high school students meanwhile were staging a hunger strike outside the Government Headquarters to protest against Government’s decision to make National Education an independent subject in the primary school’s and high school’s curricula. And about 30 of their peers also camped out there.

The Chief Secretary Carrie Lam came visiting them yesterday, asking them to go back to school to study and not to indulge in the thought that they must win by successfully pressurizing the government to withdraw National Education. Her patronizing remarks were not well received.

It is amazing that Hong Kong’s current wave of anti-National Education movement has been largely driven by a group of high school students who have organized themselves into a prominent force.

Under the public pressure, many schools have indicated that they will not launch the national education this year or in the coming three years. One primary school has indicated that it will launch but its principal has ordered all the school teachers to pledge not to divulge the curricula to the public.

By Anna

With a wanderlust and lusts of other sorts, I look to sth new, sth different, sth fulfilling, and find myself on a journey...

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