Protest content scrubbed from liberal studies books

Content about the civil unrest has been revised or deleted in a number of liberal studies textbooks after their publishers sought advice from the Education Bureau.

Eleven textbooks, including three in English by six publishers, underwent review by the bureau under a professional consultancy service launched last September during the anti-government protests.

While participation was voluntary, the bureau said it would not introduce textbooks that were not revised accordingly on its official website and that it would consider establishing a long-term review mechanism for liberal studies textbooks.

Officials have said the education sector - including some teachers charged with professional misconduct as well as the content of the liberal studies subject - has misled students into becoming violent protesters.

Some publishers, such as Aristo Educational Press Ltd and Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co, uploaded the list of amendments on their websites yesterday after making changes to their textbooks.

These changes include the deletion of mock exam questions about civil disobedience and the controversy over Article 23 of the Basic Law.

These decisions were made according to teaching needs, Aristo said on its website. It also cut out sections discussing whether the SAR has separation of powers among the executive branch, legislature and judiciary.

Likewise, HKEP added a sentence in sections about the Occupy Central movement in 2014 that reads: "The government does not accept the use of violence or illegal ways to ask for demands."

When explaining the city's political model, it said: "The three powers serve a function of checks and balances to prevent power from being too centralized." However, the phrase "separation of powers" was deleted.

HKEP removed some photos of the social unrest, such as one showing a "Lennon wall" covered with Post-it notes calling for "real universal suffrage."

Tang Fei, vice chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said publishers had "political and practical considerations."

Tang added: "Now that the Diploma of Secondary Education exam seldom touches on [civil disobedience], there's no need to drill students about it."

But liberal studies teacher Chan Chi-wah questioned the changes, saying: "Incidents like Occupy Central have actually happened, so students need to know how to analyze them from different perspectives, and how the government should react to them."

mandy.zheng@singtaonewscorp.com