The Poverty of Political Education in Hong Kong Secondary Schools

The Poverty of Political Education in Hong Kong Secondary Schools Situated in the post-war socio-political milieu of Hong Kong, there has been a poverty of political education in the educational system for more than three decades. The political changes of decolonization and national reintegration with China pose new challenges to the development of political education. Albeit the civic education movement in the 1980s, Hong Kong still fails to fulfil the mission of preparing students for citizenship and, in turn, into political changes. In the light of some recent studies on civic education in Hong Kong secondary schools, this paper demonstrates that the current objectives, the contents as well as the implementation of civic education programmes in the secondary schools are questionable and their impacts on local students' socio-political orientation limited. Since political education is crowded out in both the formal and informal curriculums, the poverty of political education still persists. It is argued that Hong Kong secondary schools have not developed their full potential in democratic and nationalistic education, while they are much more effectively used as a way to consolidate the status quo. After assessing the role of local schools in political education, this paper further discusses the implications of these results on the formation of the political culture of adolescents and the practical issue of the making of future political education programmes in Hong Kong schools.