Joint Statement from A group of Information Technology Professionals Demanding the Immediate Withdrawal of the "Moral and National Education” 

 We are a group of IT professionals. We have always been determined to embrace and maintain Hong Kong's core values. Regarding the recent controversy on national education, we noticed that there has been a widespread concern in the community. As socially responsible IT people, we strive to safeguard the free flow of information, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought. IT could hardly develop prosperously without these freedoms. We demand the Hong Kong SAR government: 1) to immediate withdraw the Moral and National Education with Curriculum Guide and to re-launch a full-scale consultation 2) To review whether the national education shall be made as an independent subject, or to strengthen the existing civic education curriculum, or to reinstate Chinese History as a separate subject 3) In the formulation of relevant policies, take the followings as the directives: - Remove "emotional identification of the country” from the learning objective, and replace with developing students in pluralistic, tolerant, and independent critical thinking - Establish the National Education with Hong Kong characteristics, including “One Country, Two Systems”, a high degree of autonomy, pluralism, inclusion, respect of individual views, safeguarding core values of Hong Kong, as well as Hong Kong’s role in the country and the world. - Reflect ccomprehensively and accurately the situation of the country, not avoiding mentioning historical events such as the "June Fourth" incident - Give students a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the state, the people, the Government and political parties, make a clear distinction between the difference between the state, the people, the Government, political parties and the regime, so that the students would be able to realize that the love of the country and its people are not equivalent to that of the love of the Communist Party and blindly supporting the leaders of the Government without questions. - Allow the schools to decide whether to proceed national education, and if so, in what manner shall it be implemented - Ensure no assessments of the curriculum concerned in any form, no retention of records in participating or not participating in related activities, and no transfer of the relevant information to any government or relevant departments We put our words into action. We are contributing to safeguarding the core values of Hong Kong .