A year after the implementation of the Hong Kong’s National Security Law, the region has faced waves of departures of Hong Kong residents. In the first five months of this year, the Hong Kong police received 15,707 applications for a “Certificate of No Criminal Record,” a necessary document for many Western countries’ immigration processing. Ming Pao cited the Education Bureau statistics that, as of October of last year, primary and secondary schools lost about 15,400 students within a year.
A parent told Voice of America that the contents of elementary school textbooks carry ideologies from mainland China, focusing on China’s achievements without mentioning any issues such as the “2008 Chinese milk scandal.” She and her husband no longer wanted their son to receive one-way and untrue information about China.
“Hong Kong is not a good place for study, because the academic freedom is now gone,” said 16-year-old Michael, a leader of the local student organization.
As for the “age gap” in Hong Kong’s population after a large number of primary and secondary school students born and raised in Hong Kong emigrated to foreign countries, Michael estimates that they will soon be replaced by the influx of new immigrants of mainland Chinese at a rate of 150 per day. Hong Kong will gradually become one of China’s ordinary Chinese cities.
Source: Voice of America, July 31, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/hong-kong-schools-suffering-student-exodus-due-to-emigration-under-nsl-20210731/5986115.html