Off-key message to patriotic young voices

It is patently obvious that education officials have been making sweeping progress in promoting patriotic education in the city's schools.

This would have been impossible more than a decade ago when a government attempt to incorporate national education in school curriculums was greeted with strong opposition from students, parents and some educators.

The Education Bureau recently released the inspection reports of a number of schools.

It is clear that most of the government inspectors despatched to these schools were happy with the progress that has been made so far.

Some schools were singled out for commendation, including a primary school in Wong Tai Sin.

The inspection report commended this school for "intentionally setting up exhibitions in the school with elements including Chinese culture, the country's circumstances, the country's geography and national security education."

Congratulations to Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin who has achieved what her predecessors were unable to.

Nonetheless, a few schools were also singled out to be named and shamed because their pupils sang the anthem either too softly or weakly in front of the inspectors.

Does that necessarily mean that these young pupils were not particularly enthusiastic about the national anthem - though the inspection reports of the schools concerned stopped short of using those exact words?

It would be unfair to name and shame these schools just because the voices were not considered loud or robust enough. After all, they are young primary pupils.

If they had to be shamed for not singing loud enough, then Choi's predecessors would have to be subject to similar irony as none of them could deny that she has been able to accomplish a lot more than they managed in respect of patriotic education.

If the primary pupils had to be shamed, Choi's predecessors should be shamed too.

Bear in mind that patriotism is not about formalism.

I could not agree more with Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki who shared a view during an interview with The Standard's sister publication Sing Tao Daily that patriotism should be nourished, not achieved by hard selling.

Whether or not someone sings loud enough is a very subjective perception. Patriotic lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon raised a good question when she asked whether a person would become more patriotic because he or she could sing with a loud voice.

It can be expected that, following these sagas, education inspectors will likely hear students sing louder the next time they drop in to check on them.

The inspectors, then, could be convinced that because of the louder voices heard, they could tick more boxes on the report after returning to the office.

It would be best to leave the teaching job to schools - while it is alright to be zealous, being overzealous could be dangerous.

Last year, many heads shook when local libraries removed from the shelves even works by leading modern Chinese writer Lu Xun in a citywide crackdown on books thought to be contravening the national security law.