On July 30, the two major state media in the Mainland, Xinhua News Agency and the People’s Daily published commentary articles respectively, bombarding Hong Kong’s largest trade union and the Education Professionals Association with over 95,000 members as a “cancer”. The Education Bureau immediately issued a comment on July 31. Immediately, it was announced that it had decided to terminate the working relationship between the Education Bureau and the Education Association. It reprimanded the Education Association for using educational professional groups as a package, which actually promoted political initiatives, and failed to teach and persuade teachers and students in the "social unrest".
The Education Association "started" to fight for the interests and dignity of teachers, and later became the most important educational organization.
In 2000, the government launched the education reform, and the Educational Association repeatedly opposed it. It became one of the three major obstacles to the reform in the eyes of the government. The Educational Association overthrew the permanent secretary of the Education and Manpower Bureau Luo Fan Jiaofen in 2006. However, the relationship between the two parties was later in the period of Director Sun Mingyang. There was improvement, and the anti-Chinese religion broke out in 2012. However, when Carrie Lam took the stage to "break the ice", the recurrent expenditure on education was greatly increased by 5 billion yuan, mainly based on the recommendations of the Education Association.
But a storm of anti-revision regulations turned everything around.
The origin of the Education Association: The British Hong Kong Government intends to cut the entry salary of diploma teachers
The teaching agreement includes teachers’ unions, educational professional organizations and social organizations. In addition to fighting for reasonable rights and interests for teachers, they are also committed to promoting educational reforms to promote democracy, justice and progress in society.
The Education Association currently has 95,000 education professional staff members, covering government, subsidized, private school teachers, administrators and principals and other educators. It is an important representative organization in the education sector in Hong Kong.
During Situ Hua's period, the Association of Education and the government had been confidant and confidant.
(Bobby Yip/Reuters)
The Education Association started in 1973 with the Diploma Teacher Salary Campaign.
At that time, the British Hong Kong government announced a reduction in the entry salary of diploma teachers and delinked the salary scale of teachers from civil servants, causing the teachers in Hong Kong to roar.
Convened by the teacher Qian Shinian, more than a dozen education organizations formed the "Hong Kong Education Organization Joint Secretariat". Situ Hua took over and called on teachers to march and was promoted to a general strike of teachers in Hong Kong. In the end, the British Hong Kong government gave up reducing the starting salary of diploma teachers. , The maximum salary point was upgraded, and the Education Association was officially registered as a trade union.
The Educational Association registered a trade union in accordance with the "Trade Unions Ordinance" and assisted members in following up on rights and interests cases. Since its founding, the relationship with the government has been quite "delicate".
When writing an article in 2018, Feng Weihua, the president of the Educational Association, described the three-fold role of the Educational Association as a teacher’s union, professional organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Use the system to strive for change."
In the Tung Chee-hwa era, even though the Education Association was fighting against the reduction of classes and killing schools and opposing Article 23 legislation, it would still be invited to meet with Tung Chee-hwa.
(Data Picture/Photo by Zhang Haowei)
Tung Chee-hwa’s time has changed from interaction to change the mountain of education reform
Feng Weihua recalled the relationship between Hong Kong Education Association and successive governments since the return of Hong Kong. He bluntly stated that when Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang were in power, they also fought and negotiated, but "to maintain interaction with the government and the Education Bureau, they also showed goodwill and maintained a good relationship. ."
Legend has it that in the Tung Chee-hwa era, when Leung Kam-sung took charge of the "education reform", he criticized the Education Association, the Education Department and the church school organization as the "three mountains" that hindered education reform; the other two mountains were the Education Department and the church that were later merged by the bureau. School organization.
At that time, the Association of Education took the lead in opposing the teacher's language benchmark test, and instead reprimanding teachers to create pressure, the relationship was once antagonistic.
2003 Li Guozhang: Educational Association is an important partner in promoting education reform
Feng Weihua recalled that when Tung Chee-hwa was in office, although the Education Association resisted the reduction of primary school classes and killed schools and opposed the 23 legislation, it would still be invited to meet Tung Chee-hwa.
In 2003, the then Secretary for Education and Manpower Li Guozhang attended the 30th Anniversary of the Education Association and described the Education Association as "an important partner for the government to promote education reform." He hoped that the two sides would continue to strengthen cooperation in the future and work hard for Hong Kong's education.
At that time, Zhang Wenguang and Li Guozhang of the Educational Association and Luo Fan Jiaofen, the permanent secretary, "played against the dark," and finally the education reform plan was finalized.
Luo Fan Jiaofen commented on teacher suicide failures in early 2006. The Education Association re-launched a large demonstration to ask Luo Fan Jiaofen to step down. As a result, in October of the same year, she was appointed as the Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
In Donald Tsang’s years, the Secretary for Education, Sun Mingyang, had a good relationship with the Education Association. During his tenure, he attended the CPA’s 35th Anniversary Celebration Cocktail Party in 2008; the Education Association had used the Tseung Kwan O Shin Ming Court Education Center for many years and the Hong Kong government unexpectedly requested it to be withdrawn at the end of last year. It was also Sun Mingyang, the then director, who supported the lease of the Education Association.
Wu Kejian's appointment to the National Religion turmoil has repeatedly urged the Education Association to step down
Until Liang Zhenying took office, the year when Wu Kejian took over as the director (2012), there was an anti-Chinese religion, tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets, and the government finally shelved the curriculum guidelines.
Wu Kejian was repeatedly criticized for being unfamiliar with education policies, and he traveled to Japan when discussing TSA in the Legislative Council. The Education Association publicly requested to step down.
When Feng Weihua reviewed the relationship between the Education Association and previous governments in 2018, he described Wu Kejian as an "incompetent" director.
Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor takes office and increases recurrent expenditure by RMB 5 billion
The current Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor immediately announced the 5 billion yuan recurrent funding plan for education and quickly implemented the first 3.6 billion yuan in education expenditure. Many of them, such as improving the class-teacher ratio and reducing contract teachers, are to meet the demands of the Education Association.
Carrie Lam also attended the 45th anniversary reception of the Association of Education as the officiating guest in 2018, and was once regarded as the "Great Reconciliation" and "Ice Breaker" between the Association of Education and the Government.
Feng Weihua once described in 2018 that Carrie Lam responded to many demands of the Educational Association and "no longer regard the opinions of the Educational Association and frontline teachers as dung."
However, Feng Weihua also reiterated that the Educational Cooperation is a member of the democratic camp. It will continue to speak out on the history textbook disputes, rumored changes to the general education curriculum, and other policies that fail to respond to public opinion, and continue to pressure the government to "demand to stop behaviors that violate conscience and justice." .
Anti-amendment turmoil turned into a turning point
Since the anti-amendment law turmoil in 2019, the Education Association has repeatedly bombarded the Hong Kong government, including requesting the government to withdraw the amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance in April, participating in the FDC’s anti-amendment legislation, making a booklet on the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, and issuing a statement in June to approve the abuse of power by the police. , Call on teachers to "strike classes and not teach", explain developments to students in the school classroom based on objective principles, allow students to express their views, initiate joint education circles, etc., and call on the government to respond to the five major demands to repair social tears.
To the Education Bureau, 269 religious teachers’ professional malpractice complaints were received. Four of them were "pinned". The Education Association also assisted the teachers in question.
Teachers Association members will renew monthly in September
The Education Association has been established for nearly half a century. When the association was founded, it had set up a rights and complaints department to fight for the rights of co-workers. So far, it has handled more than 3,000 cases every year on average.
When the Education Association subsequently responded to the termination of the working relationship by the Education Bureau, it bluntly stated that the working meetings between the Education Bureau and the Education Association had been greatly reduced in recent years. It was disappointed and regrettable that the Education Bureau refused to communicate with the Education Association.
The Educational Association believes that even if opinions are divided, the Educational Association has always played a positive role in protecting the rights and interests of employees and improving policies. If the government unilaterally decides to cut off contacts, it will be a loss to the education sector.
The membership of the Educational Association is one year, and the membership must be renewed in September each year.
The Education Association provides academic activities, shopping benefits, ten issues of the "Education Association Newspaper" each year, etc.; it also provides free voluntary legal consultation and free safety books for members in need, but the chapter states that member legal support cannot be related to deliberate dereliction of duty or violation of criminal law.
01News
Huang Junyu: The Educational Association "takes the blame". The Educational Association welcomes to join the Education Bureau. Terminating the working relationship. The Educational Association's response: It is a loss for the industry to have 95,000 members. The Education Bureau completely terminates the working relationship with the Educational Association. The training course was bombarded by the two official media. The "tumor" must be eradicated. The Education Association must be eradicated: it has been anti-Hong Kong independence and has not incited student demonstrations. The “Daily” two official media named the Association of Education as a "cancer", saying that the Association of Education must be eradicated. Last month, the chairman of the Stake Association Feng Weihua: Due to the changing political environment, the Association of Education Zhang Ruihui retires early: The Hong Kong government emphasizes political interests more than educational development. Kill general knowledge
