National education is to foster the sense of belonging of nationals. However, Hong Kong government is trying to start national education in grammar schools where you can find some citizens whose nationality is not Chinese. It would not make any sense because they do not have any relation to the mainland China, from tribal to cultural. It would not make any sense to simply ask the residents to love the country.
In this international city, there is a wide variety of nationalities among Hong Kong citizens. However, only the residency could be identified and the rights of residents could be protected by the Basic Law of Hong Kong. On the other hand, the permanent
residentcy did not transferred to the nationality, Chinese, automatically. These can tell us the big difference between residency and nationality.
It would make much more sense if civic education can be maintained in Hong Kong. It would avoid racial conflict if we can avoid the tribal-centric national education.
By the way, it is interesting that the Hong Kong Government has run civic education for a long time when there are only residents and permanent residents in the legal framework.
Civic education does not only foster the sense of belonging but also prepare people to carry out their roles of citizens. It has to foster their virtues, development their knowledge and polish their skills for political participation. It also implies that the political system allows citizen participation. Every citizen needs to know the history of the city, the structure of government and the political system. Therefore, the history of Hong Kong as the foundation of civic education should be a mandatory subject in schools.
Reference:
http://wongonyin.mysinablog.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=3661983
