Due to the lack of the education on national conditions, the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region proposed in 2010 to add courses of the national education and moral education into required courses of the elementary and middle school. According to the plan, it will be implemented in 2012, but this has triggered fierce disputes.
National education is an international common practice
The so-called "national education" is fundamentally equal to the "patriotic education." Some politicians and scholars are afraid that the national education will "report only good news," and therefore it will not make students know real national conditions and even turn into "political brain-washing."
It is not that only China has the national education. Long Ziming, the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Youth Exchange Promotion United Association, said that, according to a foreign research report, the countries that stipulate the obligation to give the national education to citizens in constitutions had increased from 43 to 139 during the 100 years between 1870 and 1970.
In the current world, attaching great importance to the national education is an international common practice. For example, the United States is a country thinking highly of the national education. Many elementary and middle schools in the United States hold national flag raising ceremony and playing the national anthem every day.
France's national education emphasizes the outstanding traditions of the French nationality, highlights the glorious achievements made by France in various historical periods, and praises all the unique points of France so that it could foster French people's national pride and self-respect. National educations of other countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Russia, all foster the youths' patriotism and national pride in a similar way.
In fact, most people of the education circle of Hong Kong support the national education.
According to a survey of 2011, 80 percent of the teachers supported the government's national education courses. Supporters said that the national education is not a monster but connected with citizens' sense of belonging to a country, sense of responsibility and sense of citizenship identity.
It is obviously unreasonable to call the national education "fooling the people" or "brain-washing." Some scholars in Hong Kong said that the national education is connected with not only the education but also the development of Hong Kong. If people of Hong Kong do not know their country, how can Hong Kong develop? If people of Hong Kong do not have the sense of recognizing their country and race, how can they seize the opportunity of national development?
