{"id":28355,"date":"2020-01-04T02:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T02:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=28355"},"modified":"2020-01-04T02:00:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T02:00:02","slug":"hong-kong-professional-teachers-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/hong-kong-professional-teachers-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union, Education Bureau clash over treatment of teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Hong Kong professional teachers and supporters have stormed the Edinburgh Place<\/a> in protest against the government and Education Bureau over its handling of cases involving teachers accused of protest-related misconduct.<\/strong>
\nMany in the crowd on Friday wore masks as students, university lecturers, pro-democracy lawmakers, also came to show support. At the same time, they chanted slogans saying \u201cSay no to white terror\u201d and \u201cEducators, unite as one\u201d.
\nThe demonstration was precipitated by a clash of words between the Hong Kong Professional Teachers\u2019 Union, and the Education Bureau.<\/strong>
\nThe Hong Kong Professional Teachers\u2019 Union<\/a> represents about 85 percent of teachers in the city, and have been trading barbs with the Education Bureau since December over the treatment of teachers in cases linked to the anti-government movement.
\nA secondary school teacher said many of the felt angry about the vast number of their colleagues facing complaints and suspension in recent months, especially cases where teachers had only expressed their personal views on social media.
\nIt would be recalled that the Education Bureau has earlier reported it received 123 protest-related complaints of teacher misconduct<\/a> and round 30 teachers in Hong Kong may be penalized for misconduct related to the pro-democracy protests.<\/strong>
\nThe government body also revealed earlier that about 80 teachers and teaching assistants had been arrested over the ongoing protests.
\nThe Education Bureau further told schools to consider suspending any teacher who was arrested over unlawful assembly and possession of dangerous weapons.<\/strong>
\nThe row over the handling of complaints against teachers involved in ongoing protests has continued to escalate with Hong Kong professional teachers insisting that actions should be taken to ensure students\u2019 interests. In this view of criticism that some educators were penalized even before proven guilty.
\nThe organizer of the demonstration estimated about 20,000 participated while Police put the number at around 2,500.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hong Kong professional teachers accuse the Bureau of unfairness<\/h2>\n

The Hong Kong professional teachers union has accused the Education bureau of being unfair<\/a> and not giving teachers a chance to defend themselves against the charges dealt against them.<\/strong>
\nThe teachers union stated that before being notified that their cases had been substantiated, teachers had been punished.
\nFung Wai-wah, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union president, has openly said the bureau was \u201cspreading white terror\u201d and the government was blaming teachers for encouraging students to take to the streets.<\/strong>
\nAnother anonymous teacher stated that he believed the Education Bureau was threatening principals when it said they could be removed from their positions if they did not cooperate with investigations on teachers.
\nMeanwhile, a fourth-year university student surnamed Chan, said she wanted to thank teachers for their hard work and joining hands against the government who has been trying to suppress their voices.
\nFung noted that Hong Kong teachers should be able to freely express themselves when they are not at work as they are entitled to freedom of speech as well. This includes going to protests or making comments on social media.<\/strong>
\nHe further stated:<\/p>\n

As a member of the education sector, we should stand up and speak out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Education Bureau remark<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Education Bureau reacted in a written statement accusing the Hong Kong professional teachers union of a loss of professionalism.<\/strong>
\nAccording to the Bureau, they have repeatedly explained the complaints process, but the union continues to twist facts and spread worry among teachers.
\nThe Bureau noted it\u2019s the union that is inciting white terror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Hong Kong professional teachers and supporters have stormed the Edinburgh Place in protest against the government and Education Bureau over its handling of cases involving teachers accused of protest-related misconduct. Many in the crowd on Friday wore masks as students, university lecturers, pro-democracy lawmakers, also came to show support. At the same time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":28356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}