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Opinion
Did deregistered Hong Kong teacher receive the fair hearing he deserved?
- The teacher apparently had no chance to respond in person to the complaint about his lesson plan
- The Basic Law also does not specifically prohibit teaching about the pro-independence movement, raising questions over the grounds on which he was deregistered
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Kerry Kennedy is professor emeritus and adviser (academic development) at The Education University of Hong Kong.
It is clear that the Beijing authorities have Hong Kong schools and teachers in their sight, as the recent case of the deregistered teacher shows. So focused are the chief executive and the Education Bureau on weeding out “bad apples” that issues of process, fairness and professionalism seem to have been forgotten.
It does not help that details of the deregistration case only seeped out little by little. One day it seemed the teacher was deregistered because he was promoting Hong Kong’s independence in his classroom. The next day it was revealed that this teacher was not actually teaching but that he designed the lessons that were taught by other teachers.
At some stage, there was a review of the case by the Education Bureau. The review seems to have been paper-based and the teacher concerned was not interviewed. The final decision on deregistration was made by the permanent secretary for education, with the possibility of review by the chief executive or a formal judicial review. The key question in all of this is whether this is an appropriate way to manage the teaching profession.
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