Church poised to seek changes in Education Law
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/SCMP) Hong Kong's Catholic Church is expected to launch legal action against the government's Education (Amendment) Bill passed into law last year. Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, head of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese, said the church would file the judicial review by Saturday, arguing that the government has breached Art. 141 of the Basic Law, which protects the rights of religious organisations to run schools and provide education.
"The government's education reform bill has affected our rights. [. . .] we just want to reverse the ordinance and continue to run our schools the way they used to be," Bishop Zen said.
The law introduced by the Territory's Education and Manpower Department under Secretary Arthur Li Kwok-cheung provides incentives to schools that immediately implement its provisions such as insurance for the staff, flexible funding, annual bonus for each school worth HK$ 350,000 ( 35,000, US$ 42,000). However, schools that receive public funds must set up a School Management Committee that is legally separate from the schools' Sponsoring bodies.
The government claims that this will ensure greater transparency and democracy; by contrast, school administrators say that it gives the government undue power to meddle in school affairs.
By and large, schools have refused to implement the law and have thus been penalised.
This has led various Christian leaders to call the law "discriminatory and racist".
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