Teacher De-Registered for Factual Errors

Teacher at Ho Lap Primary School was de-registered last week

A primary school teacher who was de-registered last week for making up historical facts, has countered that history was not his subject, and that he was actually hired to teach English and computer skills.

It was discovered on his online teaching video he told the class that Western powers waged the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century to rid China of opium when in fact Europeans traded silk, tea and porcelain for opium from India.

Teacher was wrong about Opium War

It was just one sentence in a 15-minute video, in which he talked about Hong Kong's handover to China and the SAR and national flags.

The Education Bureau said last week that the teacher at Ho Lap Primary School had to be de-registered permanently because he had made serious mistakes by inventing historical facts. 

But when talking to the media today, the teacher -- who only had one year's work experience -- felt he was sacked because the authorities wanted to deal with him "politically".

"This whole matter was politicized. I feel resigned. I never imagined that making a mistake over a short history passage could cause the Education Bureau to de-register me. It was just a minor passage," the teacher said.

"I think the whole matter sends a chilling effect, other teachers may feel nervous."

The authorities added that in another video for general studies, the teacher told the class that paper was invented in ancient China to ensure that tortoises didn't become extinct because people were using their shells to write on.

Again this is an erroneous point, but the teacher told reporters he was only trying to to teach in a humorous way, and made corrections right away when the school discovered problems with his videos.

He added he wanted to apologize to the students and parents for his mistakes.

Paper wasn't invented to replace tortoise shells

Definitely the teacher made factual errors -- but de-registering him is an extreme form of punishment. Why not give him a verbal or written warning? After all, history is not his expertise, though admittedly he should have been more careful about teaching the facts.

Nevertheless, he is appealing the decision with the help of education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, who accuses the authorities of bowing to pressure from the pro-Beijing camp to de-register the teacher.

The whole incident makes all teachers in Hong Kong nervous. With most classes now taught remotely, the lessons are all recorded and so the authorities may be screening many of them to make sure they are politically correct...

We can thank the pandemic for accelerating the Education Bureau's scrutiny of teachers and punishing them so brutally. 

The government's war on teachers is its bid to weed out bad ones from influencing students to stand up to authority. Yes Hong Kong only needs compliant students. That's how the city is going to be competitive and international.

Not.