Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union

The Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (HKPTU) is a pro-democracy trade union, professional association and social concern group in Hong Kong. It is the largest teachers' organisation in Hong Kong with more than 90,000 members; 90% of education practitioners in Hong Kong are members.[1]

HKPTU
Full nameHong Kong Professional Teachers' Union
Native name香港教育專業人員協會
Founded1973
Members90,000
Head unionHong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions
AffiliationPro-democracy camp
Key peopleFung Wai-wah, President
CountryHong Kong
Websitewww.hkptu.org.hk
Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union
Traditional Chinese香港教育專業人員協會
Wan Chai Office of HKPTU

Mission

The PTU is known to be politically liberal, socially activist, and concerned with the defence of the legal rights of teachers.[2] Its main activities include: rights advocacy, and providing welfare services.[1] It focuses on improving education quality through promoting teachers' professionalism, and through advocating of education policies. It is also actively involved in social justice and democracy movements in both Hong Kong and China.[1]

Structure

The highest authority of the PTU is the Annual General Meeting, which is attended by members' representatives, who are elected by teachers in every school, at a ratio of 1 representative to 15 members. When the Annual General Meeting is not in session, a 39-member Executive Committee runs the day-to-day affairs of the union. A 19-member Senate monitors the Executive Committee's work. Both the Executive Committee and the Senate are directly elected by all members of the union in the form of one-person-one-vote. All votes are confidential. At present, the President of the union is Mr Fung Wai-wah, and the Chairman of the Senate is Mr Pun Tin-chi.[1]

History

The PTU was founded in response to the cut in salaries of certificated teachers by 15% in 1973. It launched the certificated teachers' strike and became an influential force in Hong Kong.

During the 1970s the PTU repeatedly challenged the government and on some occasions forced it to make concessions. During the Golden Jubilee Secondary School Incident in 1978, which was triggered by alleged corruption in a secondary school, the school was shut down by the Education Department after 900 students and teachers organised a sit-in to protest financial irregularities.;[3] 16 of the school's teachers were dismissed. Through the efforts of the HKPTU, all the teachers won reinstatement. Through this incident, the PTU demonstrated its status as the most powerful pressure group in Hong Kong.[4]

On 12 December 1980, the British journalist Duncan Campbell revealed the existence of the Standing Committee on Pressure Groups (SCOPG) in an article in the New Statesman. The SCOPG was set up by the Hong Kong government to increase its control over the opposition groups under secret surveillance; the PTU appeared on the list. On 28 January 1981, the Hong Kong Standard revealed, according to some confidential reports, that the government has listed the PTU on a "Red List" of groups were supposedly at risk of Communist infiltration.[5]

The PTU has held the Education functional constituency in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong since its creation in 1985. In the 1985 LegCo election, the founding president Szeto Wah was elected to the Legislative Council from the Teaching constituency and was re-elected in 1988 LegCo election.[6] In the 1985 District Board elections, the PTU reportedly won 24 seats.[7] By the late 1980s the PTU was the largest single union in Hong Kong with over 32,000 members.[8] President Szeto Wah remained the key figure of the PTU even after he stepped down as president in 1990 and remained active in the political arena until his death.

The PTU participated in the anti-Daya Bay Nuclear Plant campaign in 1986. In the same year, the PTU initiated the Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government (JCPDG) which demanded the constitutional reform for the direct election in 1987. The PTU participated a public gathering in Victoria Park in support of the direct election of the Legislative Council, advocating a democratic political system instead of the system in which the legislators where appointed by the governor.

During the Tiananmen protests of 1989, the PTU, together with the 14 other member organisations of the JCPDG, issued a public statement in support of the pro-democracy student-led movement in May and established the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The PTU has remained the core member of the alliance.

In 1990 Szeto Wah co-founded the pro-democracy party United Democrats of Hong Kong which later merged with the Meeting Point into the Democratic Party. In the first LegCo direct election in 1991, Szeto Wah contested in Kowloon East and Cheung Man-kwong, the PTU president and also United Democrats member, ran for the Teaching constituency.

In 1994, in response to pressure from the PTU, the Education Department agreed to subsidise the salaries of teachers in all non-profit making kindergartens. At the same time, funding was provided to expand training programs to ensure most kindergarten teachers would be given the chance to receive training to become qualified.

Szeto Wah retired from the Legislative Council in 2004 and Cheung Man-kwong retired from the Education constituency in 2012. PTU member Ip Kin-yuen became the PTU representative in LegCo since the 2012 LegCo election.

Presidents
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References
  1. "About us". Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014.
  2. Tsim, T. L. (1989). The Other Hong Kong Report 1989. Chinese University Press. p. 171.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. Lall, M. C.; Vickers, Edward (2009), Education as a Political Tool in Asia, Taylor & Francis, pp. 93–94, ISBN 0-203-88466-3
  4. Ortmann, Stephan (2009). Politics and Change in Singapore and Hong Kong: Containing Contention. Routledge. p. 66.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Ortmann 2009, p. 98–100.
  6. Tsim 1989, p. 172.
  7. Chiu, Stephen Wing Kai; Lui, Tai Lok (2000). The Dynamics of Social Movements in Hong Kong: Real and Financial Linkages and the Prospects for Currency Union. Hong Kong University Press. p. 112.
  8. Butenhoff, Linda (1999). Social Movements and Political Reform in Hong Kong. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 70.
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