MCLC: HK backs down on education plan

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: HK backs down on education plan
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Source: NYT 
(9/8/12):http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/09/08/world/asia/08reuters-hon
gkong-politics-education.html

Hong Kong Backs Down on China-Backed Education Plan After Protests
By REUTERS

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government said on Saturday schools
did not have to adopt a China-backed curriculum from 2015 in an apparent
backdown following protests by tens of thousands of people who described
it as an attempt to brainwash students.

Parents, teachers and students have staged a week-long protest, claiming
the curriculum amounts to Communist Party propaganda that glosses over the
darker aspects of Chinese rule.

The decision comes on the eve of elections in Hong Kong, a former British
territory handed back to China in 1997, that will see a legislature
expanded from 60 to 70 seats, with just over half of them to be directly
elected.

Hong Kong's embattled new leader Leung Chun-ying called the move on the
education plan a "major policy amendment", saying he had heard and
understood the public's criticism.

The government noted the scheme had not been withdrawn and that schools
could introduce it as they saw fit.

"We don't want the recent controversy to affect the operations of schools,
nor do we want to see the harmony of the education environment to be
affected (by the scheme)," said Leung.

The Beijing-backed Hong Kong leader has drawn criticism over a series of
issues since he took office on July 1, including the national education
program, sky-high property prices and concerns about an influx of mainland
Chinese visitors to the former British colony.

(Reporting by James Pomfret and Alex Frew McMillan; editing by Anne Marie
Roantree)