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Mar 8, 2013 - and Mrs. Law's mission was ''…school reform—an issue critical for helping Hong Kong's young people get good jobs and succeed in the ...
Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. (2013) 14:55–65 DOI 10.1007/s12564-013-9252-2

The politics of hope and cynicism in the realization of the vision of the 334 education reform in Hong Kong Sydney S. Pun

Published online: 8 March 2013  Education Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea 2013

Abstract According to Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, the former Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower, the most significant education policy in recent years in Hong Kong was undoubtedly the new academic structure commonly known as ‘‘334.’’ As schools, universities, and the community at large seemed to accept the new academic structure in principle, the areas of contention would mostly lie in the timing and details. Sparked by the suicides of two teachers, a wave of unprecedented protests and opposition against the government’s education policy followed, which led to the departure of the former Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun and the Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwokcheung from the education portfolio. This situation suggests that something was wrong with the teachers’ working environment. This article aims to make sense of these discursive events through a critical discourse analysis of the ‘‘334’’ education policy with materials taken from documents, speeches, and press releases published by the government as well as newspaper articles drawn from South China Morning Post, which is a rich source of contested ideas. An eclectic approach is drawn from both ‘‘state-centered’’ and ‘‘policy cycle’’ perspectives synthesized and adopted for this article. Upon this contested terrain in which individual policy actors struggle to achieve the desired political outcomes, the intention of this article is to explore how the state and other interest groups acted, reacted, and interacted in the policy processes of the 334 Education Reform.

S. S. Pun (&) The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected]

Keywords Educational policy  Politics of education  Educational change  Change strategies  Change agents

Introduction For government officials, the new academic structure reform commonly known as ‘‘334,’’ which introduced 9 years of Basic Education for all students in 1978, was significant for the education system in Hong Kong (Wardlaw 2004). One of the first tasks that Tung Chee-hwa undertook when he became Chief Executive after Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997 was to launch a consultation exercise to draw the blueprint for education reform. Citing education as the key to the future of Hong Kong in his inaugural address, Mr. Tung promised ‘‘a top-to-bottom overhaul of teaching and learning’’ (Tong and Clem, May 14, 2007). The most ambitious part of the reform was the overhaul of the senior secondary curriculum, the reduction of secondary education to 6 years, and the addition of an extra year in university. Collectively, these reforms were referred to as the new ‘‘334’’ academic structure. ‘‘Rote learning was out and primary schools were to adopt activities-based approaches. School was to become a place of fun, and high-pressure exams were to be cut to a minimum’’ (Tong and Clem, May 14, 2007). Since the introduction of the accountability system of ministerial appointees in 2002, the two most important key players in the Education and Manpower department, Arthur Li Kwok-cheung and Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, Secretary and Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower, respectively, were considered ‘‘the dream team spearheading education reform’’ (Yeung, November 5, 2006c). The problems they faced were the culture of rote learning,

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the need to encourage critical thinking among students, teachers’ qualifications, and the organization of schools and their governance (Chan, November 10, 2006). As the top figures for Education and Manpower, both Professor Li and Mrs. Law’s mission was ‘‘…school reform—an issue critical for helping Hong Kong’s young people get good jobs and succeed in the fast-changing economy of the future’’ (Chan, November 10, 2006). Although schools, universities, and the community at large seemed to accept the new academic structure in principle (Forestier and Yeung, August 28, 2004), heated debates among different stakeholders from different positions about the reform process and its politics ensued (Seto, January 24, 2006). Educators in particular were disturbed by the top-down and heavy-handed approach adopted by Mrs. Law and Professor Li to implement the reforms (South China Morning Post, December 9, 2006a). For Cheung Man-kwong, President of the Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) and Democrat Legislator for the education sector (Tong and Clem, May 14, 2007), …we believe their direction is right, but we object to the way implementation has been carried out…the government’s top-down approach and failure to listen to different opinions had meant that battle lines had been drawn when collaboration should have been sought. The past decade has been a bad dream for Hong Kong’s education sector. A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers in 2004 shows that 91.4 % of teachers and principals believed they were overworked and 82.3 % considered the reform to have affected their workload (Heron, November 27, 2004b). In a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers in 2005, nearly 90 % of the 800 teachers polled said they were under stressful conditions. One in four teachers said they worked up to 77 h a week and 56 % said they worked more than 61 h a week. About 70 % said their teaching quality was affected because of the pressure. Hiring more teachers and reducing the number of students in each class were suggested as the best solutions to solve their problem, and each suggestion won over 80 % of the votes (Lam, January 11, 2006a). According to another report released in December 2006 by the Committee on Teachers’ Work investigating teachers’ stress, about 46 % of Hong Kong teachers worked at high or very high stress levels (Cheng, January 4, 2007). In January 2006, two teachers committed suicide. However, according to Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, the suicide of the two teachers was not connected to the education reforms (Hung and Cheung, October 25, 2006). This public and politically controversial statement sparked a wave of unprecedented

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protests and opposition to the government’s education policies, which led to the departure of Mrs. Law and Professor Li from the education portfolio in October 2006 and July 2007, respectively. Mrs. Law, a former rising star in the government, eventually ended her 32 years of public service in June 2007 when she resigned as the Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, just 8 months after taking on the post. She was heavily criticized in the report of the Hong Kong Institute of Education Inquiry with regard to alleged attempts by officials to interfere with academic freedom and institutional autonomy (Hung and Wong, June 21, 2007). Allegations that Mrs. Law made phone calls to silence or call for the sacking of critics of the government’s education policies were partially established (South China Morning Post, July 24, 2007c). ‘‘The allegations paint a disturbing picture,’’ as said in a South China Morning Post (SCMP) editorial (South China Morning Post, February 12, 2007a). These allegations were also leveled against several officials, including the Education Minister Arthur Li Kwokcheung, who sought to stop academics from publicly disagreeing with the government’s education policies (South China Morning Post, February 12, 2007a). Although the allegations against Professor Li were not established in the Hong Kong Institute of Education Inquiry report, his reputation was tarnished by allegations that he threatened institute officials. ‘‘Clearly, Professor Li cannot remain in his job,’’ an SCMP editorial noted (South China Morning Post, June 21, 2007b). Professor Li was then dropped from the government team when the new cabinet came into effect in July 2007 (Gooch, June 30, 2007). The two most prominent key players in the 334 Education Reform eventually left their posts. For government officials such as Professor Li and Mrs. Law, ‘‘The 3 ? 3 ? 4 reform is so fundamental that it may only happen once in a generation,’’ (Li 2005) and the move is undoubtedly ‘‘…the most significant education policy in recent years in Hong Kong’’ (Law 2005). Cheng Kai-ming, Chair Professor of Education at the University of Hong Kong and one of the masterminds behind these education reforms, maintained that, ‘‘…reforms were on the right track,’’ and ‘‘…it will bring unprecedented fruits in the long run’’ (Tong and Clem, May 14, 2007). However, as commented in the SCMP, ‘‘…the path has not been an easy one, though, and for many the jury is still out as to how successful the much-touted, and much-criticized, reform package has been’’ (Tong and Clem, May 14, 2007). Upon this contested terrain in which individual policy actors struggle to achieve the desired political outcomes, the intention of this paper is to explore how the state and other interest groups acted, reacted, and interacted in the policy processes of the 334 Education Reform and how this reform was represented in public debates conducted though the media. Specifically, the study asks the following questions:

The politics of hope and cynicism

Why did the policy meet such widespread opposition from various stakeholders? What were the consequences for the various policy makers and stakeholders?

Conceptual framework and methodology Referring to policy sectors such as education and health, the question of ‘‘what policy is’’ has been dealt with differently by writers from different paradigms. Although the rational approaches conceptualize policy in distinct and linear phases (Harman 1984; Codd 1988; Dye 1992), other writers see social problems and policies as the ‘‘contested terrain’’ that involves negotiation, opposition, or struggle (Ozga 2000). Taylor et al. (1997) draw on the conflict approach, which considers society to consist of competing groups that have different values and access to power. This characteristic highlights the value-laden nature of policies and the highly political nature of policy processes. Seen in this light, the state is consequently a ‘‘strategic-relational’’ terrain (Jessop 1990) upon which individual policy actors struggle to achieve the desired political outcomes (Taylor et al. 1997). The conceptual approach adopted for this paper can be described as ‘‘critical postmodernism’’ because it draws understanding from both modernist (state-centered) and postmodernist (policy cycle) perspectives (Vidovich 2002). Yeatman (1990) argues that social policies are not responses to social problems already formed and ‘‘out there.’’ Instead, social policies constitute the problems to which they seem to respond. Taylor et al. (1997) consider policy processes as being more complex, interactive, and multi layered. Ball (1993) presents the contrast between the ‘‘cleanliness’’ of the abstract ‘‘bigger picture’’ and the ‘‘messiness’’ of policy realities, highlighting struggle and resistance as important for developing a theory of and for change. To capture this more complex ordering of relationships, Raab (1994) uses the idea of ‘‘policy networks’’ as a generic label for different types of relationships and interconnections between the state and other interest group actors in the policy process. Similarly, to break down linear approaches to policy and emphasize the value of an analysis based on networks, Vidovich (2002) depicts the concept of a ‘‘modified policy cycle’’ with the combined effect of the multiple trajectories identified to work like a network of interrelationships in which neither the macro level state nor policy practitioners at the micro level has absolute power. Bargaining and negotiation are involved in all stages. They are the achievement of settlements in the face of dilemmas and trade-offs among values, and the result of attempts to resolve conflicts among authoritative, rational, and consensual imperatives (McLaughlin 1987; Rein 1983).

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During the 1990s, the extent to which a ‘‘state control’’ or a ‘‘policy cycle’’ conception of the policy process is the most useful was a central issue in the education policy literature (Lingard 1993; Ranson 1995; Taylor 1997; Troyna 1994). As a key advocate of a state-centered position on education policy making, Dale (1989) emphasizes the macro constraints operating among practitioners at the micro level. Ozga (1990) also supports Dale’s approach and similarly emphasizes that state-centered models are capable of accommodating complexity and difference. She maintains that a statist framework can be used for a comprehensive investigation into the source, scope, and pattern of any education policy, the operation of the state apparatus, its internal contradictions and conflicts, and the historical antecedents of policy structure, content, and culture (Ozga 1990). Therefore, conceptualizing the state has moved beyond unitary accounts to include greater complexity, heterogeneity, contradiction, and opposition (Vidovich 2002). The state retains an important steering position and an important role in education policy processes because it is able to ‘‘…employ legitimate coercion; shape other institutional features; define and enforce conditions of ownership and control; and fuse the collective will’’ (Vidovich 2002, p. 6). In policy analysis work, Ball (1994) and Bowe et al. (1992) distinguish three different contexts of the policy process for empirical studies as follows: •





Context of influence In this context, interest groups struggle over the construction of policy discourses. What struggles influence the policy? Context of policy text production In this context, the texts represent policy, although they may contain inconsistencies and contradictions. What struggles occur in the production of the policy text? Context of practice/effects In this context, the policy is subject to interpretation and reaction. What struggles occur in the policy practice/effects?

These contexts can be considered an elaboration of the why, how, and what of policy analysis, which can also be labeled as ideology, discourse, and text, respectively (Gale 1999; Kenway 1990). Although acknowledging that the policy process is continuous, the assumption is that struggles or ‘‘contested terrain’’ (Ozga 2000) will be evident in each context, which contributes to the ‘‘messy realities’’ of the policy process (Ball 1994). The conceptual framework is drawn from both ‘‘macro constraint’’ (e.g., global policy agendas, market ideology, and economic discourses) and ‘‘micro agency’’ of group and individual participants to track policy processes through different moments in the policy cycle (Vidovich 2002). By adopting a critical discourse analysis approach as a methodology for analysis, this paper aims to make sense of the

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discursive struggles among the actors in the field through a critical discursive analysis of the ‘‘334’’ education policy. Materials were obtained from documents, speeches, and press releases published by the government as well as newspaper articles drawn from the South China Morning Post, a very rich source of contested ideas and material for analysis. For Taylor (2004), recent approaches to policy analysis in education have been influenced by discourse theory perspectives. From such a perspective, policy making is considered an arena of struggle over the meaning or ‘‘the politics of discourse’’ (Yeatman 1990), and policies are seen as the outcomes of the struggles between contenders of competing objectives, in which language, or more specifically discourse, is used tactically (Fulcher 1989). The approach adopted for this paper has a general social science orientation, that is, it is concerned with practices and organizations instead of abstract textual structures (Potter 2004). Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is of particular value in documenting multiple and competing discourses in policy texts, in highlighting marginalized and hybrid discourses, and in documenting discursive shifts in policy implementation processes (Taylor 2004). CDA also aims to explore ‘‘…how texts construct representations of the world, social relationships, and social identities, and there is an emphasis on highlighting how such practices and texts are ideologically shaped by relations of power’’ (Taylor 2004, p. 435). Emphasizing the importance of re-relating discourse to a greater network of power relations (Said 1983) that tend to center the analysis of discourse to the field of power (Foucault 1981), this paper argues that CDA is particularly appropriate for critical policy analysis to investigate the heated debate among the different stakeholders from different positions on the ‘‘334’’ reform process and its politics through a series of events, as reflected in policy texts and newspaper articles reported in the South China Morning Post.

Advancing the vision of ‘‘334’’ Over the past decades, after the return of Hong Kong to Mainland China in 1997, the criticisms to our education system in the mass media have remained unremitting, with the SCMP readers being ‘‘the most vociferous critics’’ (Tsui, May 2, 2007). In the ‘‘Letters’’ column of the SCMP, readers such as C. Y. Tsui have been actively engaged in the discussions on the defects of our schools. ‘‘It seems that 10 years on, our schools have failed many of our students during what should have been the best years of their lives’’ (Tsui, May 2, 2007). School children are being ‘‘trained to behave like robots,’’ and the appalling situation is often described as ‘‘spoon-feeding,’’ ‘‘enslavement’’ education,

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and ‘‘a painful reminder of the criticism about education during the British colonial years.’’ The declining quality of education in schools also reminds the SCMP reader of Milton Friedman’s statement that highly ‘‘schooled’’ people may not be ‘‘educated’’ (Tsui, May 2, 2007). A study published by Pamela Youde of Nethersole Eastern Hospital, in which 660 students in forms one to seven in three schools were interviewed, reveals staggering statistics: one in three students in secondary school falls asleep in class at least once a week. School children are not to blame if the lessons are boring and irrelevant to them. However, ‘‘it’s time Hong Kong opened its eyes to a problem that is undermining efforts to engage students actively in learning’’ (South China Morning Post, November 11, 2006h). In a SCMP article entitled ‘‘Damning assessment given of HK education policy,’’ Hong Kong’s opinion leaders attack the government’s performance in education and give a critical assessment of the local schools (Gooch and Clem, November 6, 2006). In the SCMP/TNS Opinion Leaders Survey, almost 700 leaders and business decision makers aged 25 and over, with a monthly household income of HK$40,000 or above, were asked for their views on the administration’s performance in providing quality education, and they gave an average response of 4.3 out of 10 (Gooch and Clem, November 6, 2006). Readers wrote in response and drew relatively the same conclusions as the survey. Despite the various reforms over the years, education in Hong Kong is still defective (Garner, November 8, 2006): Classrooms in local schools are overcrowded (with as many as 42 students per class in some secondary schools), teachers are overburdened and principals are forced to deal with increasing numbers of disaffected youths destined to become burdens on society. SCMP reader Peter Sherwood (August 13, 2006) described the sad reality of our ‘‘world-class city’’ having a third-rate education system. Another reader Robin Cheung Man-biu, Principal of Tsung Tsin College (Cheung, January 6, 2007b), wrote the following: Hong Kong needed the great majority, if not all, of our students to succeed, academically and professionally…Failure…to achieve this across-the-board improvement would mean more youth problems, cross-generational poverty and welfare costs as well as a waste of human talent. SCMP reader Paul Yau Yat-heem, School Principal of Logos Academy, which is a through-school under the Direct Subsidy Scheme, and Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council’s Committee on Gifted Education, recognized that it was time for Hong Kong’s education system to improve: ‘‘Hong Kong has been too slow in reforming our archaic

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system, which has lagged far behind others in meeting the human resources requirements of a knowledge system’’ (Yau, September 20, 2005). Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, Executive Councilor and founder of Synergy Net, which is a policy think-tank, reported that major developed countries around the region had been pursuing wide-ranging education reforms that involve curricula and school management to improve teacher quality with the aim of creating a better-educated workforce to meet the challenges of the new, knowledgebased economy. Japan launched its Educational Reform Plan for the twenty-first century in 2001 and the Compulsory Education Reform in 2004, and Singapore aspires to become a ‘‘global schoolhouse,’’ with a target of 150,000 international students by 2015 (Cheung, April 14, 2007a). More than once, the government had forcefully admitted that Hong Kong needed to change its ways to adapt to the future trends of the working world (Tong, March 3, 2007a). Endorsed by the Policy Addresses of the Chief Executive since 2004, Hong Kong needed to prepare our next generation to cope with the challenges of the twenty-first century effectively by developing new senior secondary and university systems that meet international standard (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2004). As argued by Mr. Wardlaw (2004), Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower: There is a powerful relationship between the education level of the population and its wealth and productivity...We are making these changes because society and our economy is changing dramatically and the rapid development of new technologies and knowledge and increasing global competitiveness require that Hong Kong nurtures the talents of not just a few people, but all of its human resources. This will be greatly helped by having a bigger proportion of students complete a broadly based high-quality education at school. An additional year of senior secondary education for every student and an additional year in university education will raise the overall quality of our young people…Just as we have moved to nearly universal five years of heavily subsidized secondary education; we now accept the need for six years, an international norm in the developed world. Hong Kong could not afford to be complacent (South China Morning Post, April 3, 2006f; May 19, 2006g). The Parent–Teacher Association of La Salle College organized a forum to discuss how schools could prepare their children for a globalized world. University of Hong Kong vicechancellor Tsui Lap-chee said educators and parents should help students develop attributes to survive and excel in a globalized world. According to Thomas Wong Wa-sun, Chairman of the school’s Parent–Teacher Association, the symposium was organized to alert parents to challenges presented by globalization (Tong, May 19, 2007b).

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The texts of these articles published in the SCMP and government documents reveal that globalization, since the 1990s, has placed the whole notion of the state under pressure (Taylor et al. 1997). In the globalization scenario, national economy policies are seen as increasingly irrelevant because they are unable to control global markets (Hussin and Ismail 2009). Pannu (1996) argues that globalization, along with the market ideology, has challenged the hegemony of the state, and states have risen to new hegemonic status. He sees the role of the state as becoming the management of social tensions to maintain the legitimacy of this new world order. What has occurred is a remantling of the state for the protection of global markets. Cerny (1990) refers to this situation as the ‘‘competition state,’’ in which the state grants policy priority to internationalize the economy with consequent implications for education. This condition partly explains why the Hong Kong government has spent almost a quarter of its annual total expenditure on education (Lau, January 12, 2006). Over the past decade, the government increased spending on education by 40.5 %. In the fiscal budget for 2007–2008, education accounted for 21.4 % of all spending, the largest single item (Cheung, April 14, 2007a). Cerny further maintains that the increased openness and interpretation of the world economy force changes from macro to micro intervention, from strategic industries to competitive advantage in the global marketplace, and from promoting national welfare to promoting enterprise, innovation, and profitability in both private and public sectors. He argues that the state is absorbed by both civil society and the competitiveness of the open world economy, and, as a result, the state has to act more like a market player (Cerny 1990). The move toward realizing the new academic structure has also been interpreted in the SCMP as Hong Kong embarking on ‘‘…shedding its British heritage in education in the same week that Britain itself announced similar reforms… Both moves reflected international trends’’ (Forestier, October 23, 2004).

Reasons for cynicism and hope Recognized as a key player in the 334 Education Reform, former Permanent Secretary for Manpower and Education Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun played a huge role in shaping reforms since she became Director of Education in 1998. Mrs. Law unusually stayed longer with the Education Bureau instead of assumes other posts. After being Director for about 2 years, she became Secretary for Education and oversaw the merger of the former Education Department and the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB). She was designated as Permanent Secretary when Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung became the first politically appointed Secretary in 2002 (Forestier, November 1, 2006b). In an

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intensive interview in the SCMP, Mrs. Law was full of praises for Professor Li whom she described as very intelligent (Tong, November 1, 2006b): He is a great boss. He has been willing to take responsibility. We have established mutual trust. He shares with me his thoughts. I share my thinking. We debate and discuss and once we’ve taken a decision we go out and preach the same message. As reported in an article published in the SCMP Young Post (South China Morning Post, February 8, 2006e), the 334 Education Reform policies were planned with good intentions and genuine aims, but the results were awful because they were hastily imposed. The government had been implementing education reforms since the end of the 1990s. However, teachers, students, and parents found it difficult to follow, and they were left without any other choice. Teachers such as Mr. Ng, an English Panel Chairman who taught for 25 years, tended to agree that the reforms were justifiable in principle. Nevertheless, they were imposed on schools without the necessary resources for effective implementation (Forestier, January 19, 2006a). ‘‘We work like robots,’’ said Mr. Huang, who taught mathematics in a low-band school, where he spent 10 h a day, followed by another two working at home (Forestier, January 19, 2006a). Chau (February 11, 2006) succinctly summarized the situation in a SCMP ‘‘Mailbag’’ article. The reforms brought ‘‘only trouble to teachers and schools.’’ The education reform was labeled ‘‘a murderer’’ because of the suicides of two veteran teachers Lam Hang-hong and Yu Kei-cheong (Forestier, January 19, 2006a; South China Morning Post, February 8, 2006e; Tong and Forestier, January 14, 2006). The former top education civil servant Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun apologized for her unfortunate remark: ‘‘…if education reforms had caused teachers to die, why had only two committed suicide’’ (Tong and Lam, January 11, 2006). Nevertheless, SCMP reader Lam (Lam, January 27, 2006c) still considered her comment as follows: …not a slip of tongue, but an accurate reflection of her disdainful attitude toward teachers, whom she views as lazy and incompetent. She is also intolerant of and vindictive towards those who disagree with her. Without a solid base of trust and respect between the government and its stakeholders, the row over the teachers’ suicides turned into a storm over education reform, and Mrs. Law’s gaffe unleashed a groundswell of frustration and mistrust among teachers about the whole system and reform (Yeung, January 25, 2006b). Albert Cheng King-hon (January 28, 2006), a directly elected legislator, wrote in SCMP:

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As the Chinese saying goes, ‘It takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze one meter deep.’ The education field’s troubles have in fact been brewing for some time… The teachers’ strong reactions show that there are many inadequacies in the reforms imposed on the profession over the past six years, irrespective of their noble objectives. The incessant demographic decline resulted in the reduction of 600 classes in 2004 and 2005. In the next 2 or 3 years, 300 more classes would be removed (Tong, January 18, 2006a). ‘‘They have ‘killed’ enough. Over 130 schools have been closed so far,’’ said Mr. Cheung Mankwong, Democrat Legislator and Chief of Professional Teachers’ Union (Clem, January 21, 2006). From 2007 onwards, the shrinking student population would be expected to hit secondary schools. ‘‘If they continue like this, it will become a real worry for teachers,’’ said the PTU Chief (Clem, January 21, 2006). As lamented by an SCMP editorial (South China Morning Post, January 24, 2006d): Policy makers appear to have overlooked the effect of demographic changes. As a result of these changes, teachers have to upgrade their skills, schools must go through quality inspections, and students sit competency assessments. Even in a stable system, these measures could spark grave anxieties. In a system that has to shrink because of falling birth rates, they have inadvertently become tools for measuring performance. The penalty for failure is harsh because it can mean school closures and redundancies for teachers. No wonder the reforms have unleashed a huge backlash. For PTU Chief Cheung Man-kwong, ‘‘…closing schools which fail to admit enough students fuels unhealthy competition among schools and increases pressure on teachers who are buried in reports and non-teaching work to impress the EMB with figures’’ (Lam, January 19, 2006b). Many teachers experienced ‘‘…the twin pressure of retraining for an uncertain future and laboring hard to keep their existing jobs highly stressful’’ (South China Morning Post, January 24, 2006d). As shown by the intertwined issues of teachers’ workload, school closures, and class size, ‘‘…livelihood issues could easily turn into a political bombshell,’’ said Yeung (January 13, 2006a) in an education issue analysis column in SCMP. For John Lee Chi-kin, Dean of Education at Chinese University (Tong and Clem, May 14, 2007), …reforms by definition triggered instability, and uncertainties that had stemmed from recent changes in the education system in Hong Kong were compounded by external destabilizing factors, most notably dwindling student numbers. Teachers are enthusiastic about the reform, but their jobs aren’t secure. This is the crux of

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why there’s much frustration over the changes…Another factor hindering the progress of the reform is the loss of trust between the government, school sponsoring bodies and teachers. Government officials had more than once acknowledged the challenge posed by the education reform shake-up and had indicated not to underestimate the level of support needed for this change (Cheung et al., January 13, 2006; Forestier, October 23, 2004; Li 2005). However, for Paul Morris (October 30, 2004), former President of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Possibly the most important area where consistency is needed relates to the oft quoted intention that all parties will have to work in close partnership to implement the reforms. Unfortunately, Hong Kong’s political system encourages political posturing and adversarial politics rather than the sort of collaboration that will be needed. For Carless (January 21, 2006), Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Hong Kong University, ‘‘When few reforms have been implemented successfully and when even the partially successful ones are critiqued mercilessly, it is easy for a negative view to dominate.’’ Some educators criticized the PTU for ‘‘politicizing’’ the deaths of the two teachers (Tong and Forestier, January 14, 2006). For instance, the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers said they did not support the PTU’s criticisms of Mrs. Law: ‘‘I don’t think we should have let things escalate to such animosity. Mrs. Law has already apologized. We shouldn’t oppose just for the sake of opposing.’’ According to the Chairman of the Tai Po District Primary School Heads’ Association, politicizing the issue did not help: ‘‘I don’t want to be entangled in politics’’ (Tong and Forestier, January 14, 2006). A SCMP editorial stated that educators would be teaching a poor lesson to students if they exploited the deaths of Yu and Lam in a bid to force the government to abort the education reforms (South China Morning Post, January 11, 2006b). ‘‘While the bureau would ‘listen to all the different voices,’ it saw no reason to alter the schedule if the reforms were running smoothly’’ (Clem, January 18, 2006). In a follow-up editorial published about 2 weeks later, the SCMP emphasized that the government, after all, needed not ‘‘…bow to the PTU’s politicization of Mrs. Law’s unfortunate remarks’’ (South China Morning Post, January 24, 2006d). However, what the former Permanent Secretary Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun had been doing or saying was also being criticized by other educators and critics in the SCMP as seeking only to ‘‘…protect the education reforms which represents her political capital’’ (South China Morning Post, January 14, 2006c). According to Chris Yeung, SCMP’s Editor-At-Large of the ‘‘Observer’’ column, the officials’

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attempts to play down the role of reforms in the suicides deepened public mistrust (Yeung, January 25, 2006b): The public outcry over Mrs. Law’s remarks had laid bare deep-seated grievances and doubts about the government’s approach to pursuing reform in the classroom. At the heart of the issue is the question of whether education officials have listened to, and taken account of, the feelings and aspirations of teachers during the overhaul… Despite the rhetoric of partnership, the relationship between government and teachers has become increasingly strained as the reforms proceeded [as a result of] the government’s failure to secure the trust and support of major stakeholders… As vividly portrayed in a series of SCMP articles, the government, for most of the time, was taking ‘‘a softly– softly approach’’ (Heron, November 27, 2004b). As Professor Li said (Chan, October 22, 2004a), …the timing and contents of the reforms were open to change, depending on the views of schools, teachers and the public…We will not impose them [reforms] on people because we believe that, without the general support of the education sector, it will be impossible for them to succeed. The former Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Peter Hill claimed that reforms would not add to teachers’ workload once it was up and running (Heron, November 27, 2004b). According to Mrs. Law (Chan, October 23, 2004b), ‘‘Our teachers have proved their resilience over the past few years in coping with education reforms. I have full confidence in the capability and devotion of our teachers.’’ Professor Li (2006), in a letter written for all teachers in Hong Kong just before the Lunar New Year in 2006, once again stated the following: It is clear that our education is bearing fruits, thanks to your efforts. Your dedication is deeply appreciated by all students, parents and members of the community, and has earned their support and recognition… On behalf of my colleagues; I would like to thank you once again. Salute to you all! At times, reform became ‘‘a hard-elbowed peddling of personal vision... Listening is irksome, and largely a public-relations exercise’’ (Yeung, January 25, 2006d). ‘‘I believe most of the legislators will support the reform, though a few may still nit-pick. There are always people who badmouth well-intended policies of the government,’’ said the Education Minister (Chan, May 19, 2005b). Likewise, Cheng Man-yiu, Deputy Secretary for EMB, agreed to consider the possibility in response to legislators’ request to establish a Legco focus group to consult on

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special education, but he added, ‘‘Civil servants are very busy. Your suggestion has yet to be examined carefully… There is a need for priorities in policies’’ (Chan, April, 2, 2005a). According to Ball (1993), policies can easily become ‘‘regimes of truth’’ (after Foucault) in which only certain voices (dominant discourses) are heard as authoritative. During a conference on the reforms held at the Chinese University, Professor Li attacked a small group of academics who criticized the proposed curriculum reforms and warned that the changes could be too drastic for teachers already burdened with a heavy workload (Yeung, December 19, 2004): Their comments may have affected the morale and confidence of teachers. As academics, they should come up with insightful views rather than just heavy criticism. It is a pity that they have not made any constructive suggestions. The shocking comments have attracted attention, but most teachers have independent thinking and should not be affected. For Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, Founder of Synergy Net, which is a policy think-tank, former Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party, Executive Councilor to the government, and President of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (Cheung, January 16, 2006), It would be over-simplistic to blame the recent suicides on education reforms. Nevertheless, it is time for the government to reflect on the pace, and both the intended and unintended consequences, of the various reforms implemented since 1997 to improve efficiency, responsiveness and performance accountability. All policy reforms could be justified by an ambitious incoming administration trying to move ahead in the increasingly competitive global environment. The 1997 Asian financial crisis shattered Hong Kong’s success story, making bold reforms a must…But reforms are easily portrayed as matters of political inevitability, and seldom subjected to extensive debates in society. As a result, social tensions have lingered and, at times, escalated.

Conclusion Changes in society and the economy have demanded changes in education (Forestier, October 23, 2004). Under the new ‘‘334’’ academic structure, the provision of a 3-year senior secondary education and 4-year university education meant a substantial increase in the public investment in education, with the intention to make school more meaningful to

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students and relevant to society (Forestier, October 23, 2004; Heron, July 10, 2004a). Described as the ‘‘Herculean task’’ ahead, it would be naı¨ve to think that the transformation of a system could be smooth and painless (Heron, July 10, 2004a; South China Morning Post, February 8, 2006e). The policies were planned with good intentions and genuine aims, but the results were poor because they were hastily imposed (South China Morning Post, February 8, 2006e). Reforms were imposed on schools without the necessary resources for effective implementation, and the manpower was not enough, particularly when most of the teachers still had to face classes of 40 children (Forestier, January 19, 2006a). Sparked by the suicides of two teachers, Lam Hanghong and Yu Kei-cheong, a wave of unprecedented protests and opposition against the government’s education policy consequently followed (Forestier, January 19, 2006a; Tong and Forestier, January 14, 2006). Without a solid base of trust and respect, the row over the teachers’ suicides turned into a dispute over education reform, and Mrs. Law’s unfortunate remark, ‘‘…if education reforms had caused teachers to die, why had only two committed suicide’’ unleashed a groundswell of frustration and mistrust among teachers on the whole system and reform (Tong and Lam, January 11, 2006; Yeung, January 25, 2006b). Concern about teachers’ workload never ceased to trigger debates on contentious policies such as school closures and class size. With regard to the interwoven issues of teachers’ workload, school closures, and class size, livelihood issues could easily turn into a ‘‘political bombshell,’’ as previously shown (Yeung, January 13, 2006a). Issues such as the scope of the reforms, the pace of implementation, and the implications on teachers’ workload and pressure were argued about by the government and the concerned education groups. Heated debates among different stakeholders from different positions ensued (Seto, January 24, 2006). The 334 Education Reform, principally involving reforms in the school curriculum, teaching pedagogy, and assessment mechanism, was indeed a great challenge to teachers. Other factors, including parents’ expectations, student behavior, changing social climate, and declining student population also affected the teachers emotionally (Li 2006). The inevitable problems and challenges need to be overcome in the reform of schooling operated at many levels (Morris, October 30, 2004). The interconnections between these different levels and contexts of the policy process, as Taylor (1997) suggests, are continually related to each other. A plurality of contexts and multiple trajectories exists that needs to be considered simultaneously throughout the policy process (Vidovich 2002). In such a fast-paced, rapidly changing, globalized world, SCMP reader Margaret Chu (January 28, 2006) noted that ‘‘…the price of a plural, multiculturalism society

The politics of hope and cynicism

is complexity. Gone are the days of one-dimensional problems and relatively simple solutions.’’ After serving as the head of the Chief Executive-elect’s office and director of Leung Chun-ying’s campaign office, Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, together with Arthur Li Kwokcheung, once again joined the new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s government as fellow Executive Councilor (Ng and Lee, June 22, 2012). Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim continued to stand firm on the issue of the introduction of a national education in the school curriculum despite the massive protests from student activists, concerned parent groups, and candidates from all the major political parties running in the current Legislative Council election (Chong and Lee, August 27, 2012). The government once again needs to ask itself a number of hard questions, particularly ‘‘how it can meet those educations reform targets given the unpromising social, educational, and cultural conditions.’’ The solution would not be easy (Bruce, December 18, 2004). Former Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang, who retired in 2001, observed that the old formula of effective government used by the colonial administration no longer worked. ‘‘You cannot go back to the old system. You have to move with the times and change the system so that it can deliver strong, effective, transparent and accountable governance’’ (Yeung, July 1, 2007). After all, only through concerted efforts could we embrace change. Mrs. Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, upon her departure from the post of Permanent Secretary for Education and Power, stressed once again for more understanding between teachers and bureaucrats. ‘‘We need to be more empathetic on both sides. The EMB needed to better understand teachers who had been taught in a different way and teachers needed to appreciate the work done by the bureau’’ (Forestier, November 1, 2006b).

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