TNAG-0176-FCO40-212-Brief-on-communist-controlled-schools-for-Lord-Shepherd-s-vi-1969 — Page 67

003160 Q. 316

From:

SECRET

MEMO

Copy No.

of 30 copies

Commissioner of Police (D.S.B.) To: A.F. Maddocks, Esq.,

Ref:

GEN/14/368/139

Tel. No:

H 728073

Date:

13th January, 1969

Political Adviser

Political Indoctrination in Communist

Schools

You will recall that a brief note on political indoctrination in communist schools was distributed under cover of my memorandum of even reference dated 18th July, 1968. A further survey of the extent of indoc- trination has just been completed and you may be interested in the results which are examined below and in the annexures.

2..

Despite the announced intention of the communist middle schools to participate in the Hong Kong School Certificate Examination this year and a number of indicators at the beginning of this academic year of a greater emphasis on normal study there has been, if anything, an increase in the amount of political study and a commensurate decrease in the time spent on academic subjects. Annexure 'A' shows a comparative table of a breakdown in the curriculum of a secondary class of the Heung To Middle School for the months of May, July and December, 1968. From this it will be seen that more MAO study is now taking place than heretofore this invariably is carried out under cover of English and Chinese Literature lessons which, as evidenced by the timetable at Annexure 'B', occupy 14 periods a week. It is difficult to see how any school with a syllabus such as this can hope to prepare its students for the School Certificate Examination.

3.

Annexure 'C' details a typical day in the life of a student at the Heung To Middle School from which it is apparent that the communist newspapers, the works of MAO and other "revolutionary" writings are still the major works of reference used by the communist schools.

4.

1

At Annexures 'D'

-

'I' are typical mid-term examination papers set by the major communist schools. The Chinese Literature examinations are based entirely on MAO's works while the English test uses other revolutionary writings in addition to MAO. The History examinations are obviously based on distorted instruction which has been given through- out the term while the Geography paper is also predominantly political in nature and endeavours to instil a sense of pride in China's achieve- ments (under MAO's leadership, of course).

5.

The Heung To Middle School was selected for the survey because it was used in the last paper on the subject and, additionally, because it is the largest of the communist middle schools. Similar surveys conducted in respect of other communist middle schools have, in fact, produced much the same results. For example, the Man Kuen Middle School spends 11 hours a week out of 22 on political activities of one kind or another while the Sun Kiu Middle School spends 14 hours out of a total of 26.

SECRET

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