Policy Address
National Education and Values Education
147. The child is father to the man. This is particularly true for a person’s character and sense of national identity. Education on these attributes must begin from an early age. Students should acquire through education and at an early age a correct understanding of the history and culture of our country, as well as the way of life of its people, including the constitutional order of the HKSAR. Many veteran educators and I have great expectations on the efforts of the HKSAR Government in making Chinese History an independent compulsory subject for the junior secondary level and revising the curriculum since the 2018/19 school year, as well as on the Citizenship and Social Development subject which has been introduced to replace the Liberal Studies subject starting from this school year. The EDB will assume a monitoring role in this respect.
148. Moral education is an important part of school education. To develop students’ positive values and attitudes, the EDB has in recent years launched funding programmes under the Quality Education Fund (QEF) to support schools in promoting values education to help students cope with adversities with a positive attitude and develop positive thinking. To safeguard against the adverse effects of disinformation on the Internet, we will enhance the media and information literacy of teachers and students, and optimise the use of the QEF to support schools in promoting media and information literacy education, teaching students how to distinguish the authenticity of information and nurturing their critical thinking skills, thereby consolidating values education.
