HK's education system needs urgent detox

In their latest move that takes their moral bottom-line to a new low, members of the opposition camp in Hong Kong are inciting young students to skip class as part of a "referendum" on the proposed national security legislation. The maneuver has been rightly condemned by the government and public in the special administrative region.

The political zealots in Hong Kong have continuously instigated young students to perform various illegal acts, making them unwitting pawns in the political games of those radical elements opposed to the government.

As a result, more than 3,286 students, some as young as 11 years old, have been arrested for breaking Hong Kong law over the past 11 months, while the incidence of crimes committed by minors has soared. Not coincidentally, none of the arrestees is the offspring or a sibling of the political masterminds who have been fanning youth outrage and lawbreaking behavior with pernicious, deceptive ideas that they have been relentlessly releasing through various channels, particularly and directly into Hong Kong's campuses.

Although they have shown no qualms about turning thousands of young students into cannon fodder, ruining the future of other people's children in pursuit of their own political profit, the political zealots have kept their own children, grandchildren and siblings safe from the consequences of their noxious ideas by sending them to overseas schools or international schools in the city.

Now terrified by the anticipated wrath of the upcoming national security law, the political instigators and the leaders of the opposition camp have hauled in their sails for fear of the retroactivity of the security law. But disgustingly, again they are trying to lay their hands on the young students who just returned to campuses on Monday after months of classes being suspended because of the pandemic.

That many campuses in the city have been turned into training camps to churn out foot soldiers for the opposition is an indictment of Hong Kong's education system, which has been infiltrated, encroached and abused by the opposition camp for years.

By doctoring history, unscrupulous teachers who prioritize their own political objectives over the well-being of students have been instilling in young children hatred against their own country. By distorting facts, they are now instilling hatred in young children against the Hong Kong police, who have long enjoyed the reputation of being Asia's finest.

The SAR's education system is in desperate need of an overhaul. The SAR's education authority can no longer drag its feet in detoxing the sector. Hong Kong's younger generations are at stake, so are the city's long-term prosperity and stability.