James Hon
 Deputy Director, Complaints & Rights Department, PTU.
During the second world war, Pastor Martin Niemoller wrote this frequently quoted poem after witnessing the inactivity of German intellectuals to voice their disagreement with and anger at the Nazi’s purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The poem clearly depicts the dangers of political apathy, as it often starts with specific and targeted groups which soon escalates out of control. This is ex-actly what is happening in the secondary school sector of Hong Kong.
The decline in birth rate has led to a decrease in the number of school children and this has been lingering on for years in the educa-tion sector. The Education Bureau had never shown their sincerity to grasp this opportunity to implement small-class teaching until 136 primary schools were brutally closed causing great turmoil in the primary sector. Only after they succeeded in “ killing” enough schools did they introduce the small-class policy only in the primary sector.
Now EDB is hoping to do the same to the secondary sector. The Secretary for Education, Michael Suen, disclosed in a meeting with PTU executive members that 50 secondary schools would be closed within the next 5 years. Under the present system, schools catering for Band 3 students will definitely become EDB’s first targets. EDB would , in an “orderly” manner, close 10 such schools in the coming school year, 10 in the next school year, and within 5 years, they would have achieved their target of 50 schools. We can predict there will be drastic changes to the secondary sector and no one can remain uninfluenced in the next 10 years.
Upward Mobility and Mismatch
When schools catering for Band 3 students are closed, the students will be allocated to schools which are good at providing suitable education for Band 2 students. Imagine what would happen when all the Band 3 students with all their special needs were mixed with Band 2 students with a different set of attitude and learning style. Imagine all the unruly behaviour suddenly appearing in those schools disrupting normal class teaching when teachers are not ready. To aggravate the situation, schools with only Band 1 students will also be affected. Since EDB plans to squeeze as many students as possible into schools which still survive after their closure policy is success-fully done. Schools which admit mainly Band 1 students will start to take in Band 2 students. One can predict quite accurately that teach-ing and learning will never be the same in the secondary schools of Hong Kong. The whole scenerio in the secondary sector will suffer an “Upward Mobility and Mismatch” syndrome. The harm done to the quality of education in Hong Kong cannot be underesti-mated.
Before EDB succeeds in hurting our students and teachers leading to unreparable consequences, we must all rise to the occasion and say “No” to the school closure policy. Targeted schools definitely must voice their anger at EDB’s conspiracy. After all these years of providing service for our Band 3 students, how could anyone with a conscience be so ungrateful and ruthless as to try to delete us with one click? How could anyone with the right philosophy of education forsake our Band 3 students and dump them into schools without the appropriate form of service? How could any education officials be so money-minded and disregard the dire consequence of the school closure policy ?
Time for Solidarity
Schools which are not targeted this year must remember Martin Niemoller’s warning : this year you may be lucky to escape closure, next year it will be your turn ! Apathy towards the policy only makes you EDB’s associate; it can never save you from EDB’s relentless agenda which will target you as the next victim.
Protecting our schools from being closed is everybody’s business. We have experienced far too much turbulence in the education sectors in the past decade. Now that we are in the process of implementing the new senior secondary system, turbulence in the secondary sector is certainly the least we want to see. Eventually it will destroy what we have constructed and no one can be left intact. Therefore we are appealing to everybody who is concerned about our children and the kind of education they deserve to join us in the fight against EDB’s secondary school closure policy. Come to our rally at 11 a.m. on 23rd August at Hunghom Grantham Alum-ni Whampao Primary School and our protest march at 3 p.m. on 13th September at Chater Garden. Let EDB hear our voices: Protect our schools and save our children !
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