China News Service, Hong Kong, January 26th. Title: Chairman of Hong Kong’s New "General Education Committee": General education in the past failed.

  China News Agency reporter Suo Youwei

  "Both of my sons have passed the general education exam. As a parent, I also feel that this course is not good. So after being invited by the Education Bureau, I think it's great. It's my turn to take care of this. Let’s take a look." Liu Zhipeng, the vice president of Lingnan University, who is the chairman of Hong Kong’s new "General Studies Curriculum Development Committee" (new "General Studies Committee"), said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency on January 25.

  Since the subject of General Education (Liberal Studies) became a compulsory subject in Hong Kong high schools in September 2009, controversy has continued.

Reforming the Liberal Studies course has gradually become a mainstream voice in Hong Kong society.

  The Education Bureau (Education Bureau) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced at the end of November 2020 the key points of the reform of the Liberal Studies, including streamlining the curriculum content, consolidating the knowledge base, optimizing the teaching materials and evaluation arrangements, emphasizing the rule of law learning, enhancing Chinese cultural identity, and providing opportunities for investigation in the Mainland .

  The Education Bureau clarified that the reform of high school general education will be implemented in September 2021. The Curriculum Development Council has recently established a new "General Studies Committee", with a total of 12 members elected. The chairman is Liu Zhipeng, Associate Vice President (Academic and External Relations) of Lingnan University .

  "I think there is no pressure. I have been doing public service in Hong Kong for many years." Liu Zhipeng said confidently: "When you do things, you will encounter pressure. Especially in Hong Kong in the past few years, you have to do something seriously. Understand the pressure. Someone said to me, "You are willing to do such a difficult thing, in such a bad position." I think this thing must be done well."

  The reform of general education will be implemented in September, and Liu Zhipeng admitted that "the timetable is very tight."

He revealed: "From the past one or two weeks to May or so, there are a lot of procedures to deal with, such as finalizing the syllabus, structure, how to evaluate, how to design test papers, and how to make teachers master it. We need to prepare consultation documents. Collect feedback from middle school principals, teachers, etc., then re-summarize and revise, and finally form a document for publication."

  "In the new curriculum design, high school students must go to the mainland for inspection once within three years." Liu Zhipeng said: "For example, high school students from better backgrounds may go to Japan and Europe several times within three years. It’s very humble. I hope that the school will be able to increase the number of times on the bottom line of the requirement of “one time”. Because after all, the mainland is very large, and there are many things to see in the mainland. You can see the oldest, most traditional and also the most Modern, high-tech, I think this should be able to change the perception of students."

  Information published on the official website of Lingnan University shows that Liu Zhipeng is still a professor of the school's history department and concurrently director of the Hong Kong and South China History Research Department.

After joining Lingnan University, Zhipeng Liu taught general education courses and participated in the founding of the Department of History. Later, he taught Chinese history and Hong Kong history in the department.

In the past 20 years, Liu Zhipeng has devoted himself to the research and teaching of Hong Kong history and has authored various books on Hong Kong history.

He is also a director of the "Hong Kong Local History Center" and is responsible for editing "Hong Kong History".

  "My business is Chinese history and Hong Kong history. I must start with Ming and Qing social history in my class, even if the course may be too stressful, so as to solve'why is there today Hong Kong and why is there today's China?' This question. General education does not have these contents. It seems to cut the entire history of the modern period. Of course it is very problematic."

  "Students in general education in high school just learn a little bit, and then they have to answer certain questions. The original intention may be good, but if there is a problem in operation, it is easy to be alienated." Liu Zhipeng believes that the current general education The consequences of malpractice are serious.

He used this analogy to say that it was like a young man who did not learn Kungfu even the basic routines well, and then went to sparring, "I think this is really scary."

  Regarding the remarks by so-called professionals with educational backgrounds that "many of the new'General Education Committees' have a pro-organizational background, which makes people worry about the development direction of the new general education", Liu Zhipeng bluntly said: "I think this is just right. This is one reason why the Liberal Studies subject needs to be reformed. In the past so many years, the teachers who operate the Liberal Studies subject may have a concept or an impression on the course evaluation methods. Liberal Studies is a political class. Later, everyone discovered the performance of general education. It just so. Professional educators can still hold the above point of view, which just proves that the general education in the past was a failure. One of the results of the failure is that there are such a group of educators who maintain this very ridiculous concept." (Finish)