Kevin Yeung
Kevin Yeung Yun-hung (Chinese: 楊潤雄; born 26 January 1963) is a Hong Kong government official. He is the current Secretary for Education since 2017.
Kevin Yeung Yun-hung JP | |
|---|---|
楊潤雄 | |
 | |
| Secretary for Education | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2017 | |
| Chief Executive | Carrie Lam |
| Preceded by | Eddie Ng |
| Under Secretary for Education | |
| In office 1 July 2012 – 30 June 2017 | |
| Chief Executive | Leung Chun-ying |
| Preceded by | Kenneth Chan |
| Succeeded by | Christine Choi Yuk-lin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 26, 1963 Hong Kong |
| Alma mater | Wah Yan College, Kowloon University of Hong Kong RMIT University |
He graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Social Sciences and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Australia. He worked as an accountant in the private sector for seven years before joining the Hong Kong government in 1992 as an administrative officer.[1]
He served in various bureaux and departments, including more than four years as assistant to Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing. In 2010 he transferred to the Food and Health Bureau, and later served in the Home Affairs Bureau, the Kowloon City District Office, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney. He was promoted to Administrative Officer Staff Grade C in 2004. In November 2012, he was appointed Under Secretary for Education.[1]
In July 2017, he became the Secretary for Education in Chief Executive Carrie Lam's administration.
In his two senior Education Bureau roles, Yeung has frequently been criticised for his positions on contentious education matters, including: his support for Mandarin language teaching over Cantonese, his mother tongue;[2] calling for teachers to dissuade students from voicing support for the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests and that any school principal who supports a teacher under investigation may be disqualified;[3] and speedy criticism of a question in the 2020 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination that asked if Japan 'did more good than harm to China' between 1900 and 1945, calling it "problematic" and "biased".[4]
In June 2020, he wrote to school principals urging them to discipline students who took part in a union-organised referendum on whether to boycott classes as a protest against China's imposition of national security legislation through amending an annex to the Basic Law, calling it a 'meaningless ballot'. His letter also told principals to ensure that students did not shout slogans, form human chains, put up posters or even sing songs containing political messages.[5]
References
- "Under Secretaries and Political Assistants appointed".
- "【短片：粵語非母語？】楊潤雄：讓教師看不同學者意見 指小學教育可知教學語言立場 (13:00) - 20180502 - 港聞". 即時新聞 instant news. 2018-05-02.
- "杨润雄强调教育局法律上有权". 蘋果日報. 2019-12-30.
- "教育局局長楊潤雄下午三時見記者". 香港電台 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- Schools asked to punish students who boycott classes, RTHK, 10 June 2020
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Kenneth Chen |
Under Secretary for Education 2012–2017 |
Succeeded by Choi Yuk-lin |
| Preceded by Eddie Ng |
Secretary for Education 2017–present |
Incumbent |