Teachers face lifetime ban under strict 'dos and don'ts'

Eunice Lam

Teachers will be stripped of their licence for life if they have committed serious professional misconduct, say the latest Education Bureau guidelines, while providing examples of "dos and don'ts."

The 30-page guide in Chinese listed eight principles of teachers' professional conduct: professional values, abide by the law, act as role models, have integrity and fairness, be loyal to their job, care for students, respect privacy and defend professionalism.

The guidelines also listed 40 "dos" and 32 "don'ts" in behavior, including teachers should have self-awareness in safeguarding national security and should not take part in illegal activities, or send anti-social order messages to students.

The guidelines apply to all teachers registered in Hong Kong, including principals and teachers at different levels.

The bureau will not only look at court verdicts when handling teachers' misconduct that involves illegal activities.

The guidelines listed 11 past cases of teachers committing professional misconduct who were penalized by license revocation, reprimand or warning letters.

In one of the cases, a teacher was found texting a junior secondary girl with lots of explicit content and luring her to have sexual intercourse.

The bureau canceled his teacher registration.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the Secretary for Education, Christine Choi Yuk-lin, said the requirements in the guidelines are "some things that most teachers can do" as she disagreed the guidelines would encourage more reports against teachers.

When asked if teachers can discuss topics such as the "white paper protest" in the mainland recently, Choi said: "Why do teachers have to discuss issues happening in society? What's the meaning of explaining the meaning of a sheet of white paper to Primary One students?"

But she later clarified that this did not mean teachers cannot mention those topics, saying it is unprofessional for teachers to be influenced by emotion and occupy students' lesson time. "There is no reason for a teacher to use some fake and ugly materials and intentionally occupy lesson time," Choi said.

She was referring to a case stated in the guidelines, in which a teacher had his license revoked as he continuously used biased teaching materials during senior secondary liberal-studies lessons. The materials used were also found to have false and hateful comments against China.

"If one teacher only supports his biased political stance, and spreads the messages to students, it will be quite painful for his students," Choi said.

Asked how a piece of teaching material could be seen as biased, she said: "Any teacher who receives proper training would know. If one doesn't know if the materials are wrong, it's like a chef who doesn't know if a dish is toxic."

Wong Kin-ho, chairman of the Hong Kong Education Workers Union, questioned whether a teacher still needs to report if he only has a minor dispute, given that under the guidelines teachers are required to report to schools if they are involved in a criminal investigation.

"Do I need to report if I am sued for having minor unauthorized building works in my house, or if my car was hit?" he asked, and hoped the bureau can provide a clearer definition.

But education sector lawmaker Chu Kwok-keung welcomed the reporting mechanism.

"In the past, there was a lack of regulations on teachers' conduct, although some schools may have included that in the contracts," he said.

The chairman of the Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools, Lin Chun-pong, welcomed the guidelines, saying schools could have a better understanding of the bureau's approach to handling complaints on teachers.

But he said teachers are concerned about the current practice that complaints are handled by the bureau, after the Council on Professional Conduct in Education was disbanded in May this year.

He suggested forming a statutory management body, which could include representatives from teachers, schools, parents and the bureau, to improve the mechanism of teacher professional conduct.