National identity questions not linked to NSL: govt

Education officials said on Tuesday that a self-evaluation kit that asks primary school pupils whether a citizen should be willing to sacrifice his or her life for the country, along with other questions, had nothing to do with the imposition of the national security law.

The Education Bureau issued the response after online media quoted a teacher as saying his school had included questions relating to national identity in the latest Assessment Programme for Affective and Social Outcomes.

The programme was first introduced in 2003. It is designed so schools can understand pupils’ social development and needs.

According to the media report, there were questions that asked pupils to what extent they agreed with people supporting their country, even if they thought their country was doing something wrong, and how much they loved their country.

But education officials stressed the assessment also measured pupils’ concept of themselves, as well as health and wellbeing, not only national identity. They added it was a school’s decision on what to ask, and pupils answering “extremely agree” was not necessarily ideal.

“It’s groundless that individual media have linked the questions to ultra-nationalism,” said the statement.

The bureau said it had not asked the schools to collect certain data and schools also didn’t need to submit the findings to the government.

But it said, since the current programme was last updated more than a decade ago, it had asked a university to review the questions so they better met the needs of social and educational development.