Pro-Beijing lessons to be taught to children in Hong Kong

Beijing, July 27 (ANI): Hong Kong primary school students might have lessons on a controversial new subject called "national education" when they return to classrooms next month.

For parents and teachers, though, the fear is not too much study, but too much propaganda.

Critics have said the new course will indoctrinate students into the political ideas of the Chinese Communist Party, which the city has spent more than six decades trying to keep out, The Independent reports.

These fears seemed to be confirmed recently when schools received an educational booklet for the course with teachings that could have come directly from Chairman Mao.

The booklet criticised multi-party democracies as having the potential to "victimise" people while praising single-party rule for creating "selfless" governments that brought stability.

There have been reports that the new subject would fail to raise sensitive issues such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the Cultural Revolution.

Supporters of the course, which is slated to be introduced into primary schools this year before becoming a compulsory subject in 2015, said that the curriculum is only a guideline and schools would be free to adapt it accordingly. (ANI)