CY Leung's War on Teachers

Leung Chun-ying wants to out teachers in last year's protests

 

Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying continues his war against teachers and the Education Bureau, demanding the bureau publicize the names of teachers convicted during last year's protests and their schools of employment.

Leung claimed the Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung was evading his duties in at least six Facebook posts in the past three days.

Teachers taking part in a protest last year

But in two rare rebuttals, the bureau denied it had avoided the issue, saying it had "seriously followed up" each of the misconduct complaints against teachers "even in the face of challenges".

However Leung felt the bureau was not taking a hard enough line on dealing with the problem.

"On such a major issue of right and wrong, is this a responsible response? It is a shame for an official to avoid responsibilities," Leung wrote in one of the posts targeting Yeung, who was his undersecretary for education between 2012 and 2017.

Between June 2019 and this year, the bureau completed initial investigations in 180 out of the 222 protest-related complaints involving teacher misconduct. There are 117 cases believed to have been involved in wrongdoing.

Of those 117, half have been followed up on, with 17 teachers issued reprimand letters and nine given warning letters, both of which could result in the loss of their teaching registration again if they commit another misconduct again.

Yeung says bureau follows procedures on teachers

Another 19 teachers were given advisory letters or verbal warnings.

However, Leung doesn't think this goes far enough.

"How is it unfair for schools [to have their names publicized]? If so, is it fair for parents when they are being kept in the dark?" he asked.

However, Yeung has kept his ground. 

"All decisions we made are based on facts, teachers' professional conduct and the impact on students," Yeung said. "We would follow all procedures, so that no one will be wrongly found guilty or let off the hook."

Finally a voice of reason in a bid to tame Leung's rabid determination to punish anyone related to the anti-government protests last year.

Seems like Leung is hell-bent on two things: trying to make Yeung's professional life miserable, and scoring more political points with Beijing. Leung is already vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and considered an elder statesman in Hong Kong. 

Most of us have moved on from the protests with other things to worry about other than which teachers participated or not. 

Was this student influenced by teachers?

But Leung doesn't seem to want to let go of the matter, doing anything he can to discredit Yeung. This fixation on the issue is only terribly unproductive and reveals how he is making a mountain out of a molehill...