New public-school teachers to be required to pass Basic Law test

The Education Bureau will mandate that all public primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong hire only those teachers who pass a test on the Basic Law as of the next school year, Education Secretary Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said.

The new requirement, first revealed in the new Policy Address on Oct 6, is one of the latest measures by the government to strengthen teachers' knowledge of the Basic Law and improve their professional conduct.

In a radio program, Yeung said the arrangement will affect 1,000 to 2,000 new teachers each year.

The measure may be expanded in the future to include kindergartens and schools under the government's Direct Subsidy Scheme, he said. The government is looking into including content about national security to the scope of assessment for new teachers by the end of next year, Yeung added.

He also said the requirement for new teachers in public schools is in line with a similar arrangement adopted in civil service recruitment.

For civil service jobs which are advertised on or after August 6 and requires degree or professional qualifications, would-be civil servants for these vacancies must pass a test on the Basic Law.

On Friday, Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said that such an arrangement is reasonable as it requires civil servants to have basic knowledge of the special administrative region's constitutional documents.

The government will review the Basic Law test for civil servants and add content related to the National Security Law for Hong Kong in the future, Nip said.