It is encouraging to students, and indeed to the entire education community, that a national leader has spared some time to read and reply to a letter from a group of secondary school pupils in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region reporting their progress learning about patriotism and reaffirming their determination to serve the vital development interests of the motherland and the HKSAR.

This happened with President Xi Jinping when he received and then responded last week to a letter from the Form 4 students of Pui Kiu Middle School in North Point. In his personal reply, the president urged the students to devote themselves to learn more about the country’s history, develop a profound feeling of love for the homeland, and kindle a strong sense of national identity and pride.

The country’s top leader was also complimentary about the students’ growing appreciation of the great pride involved in being Chinese, along with their commitment to take up the mission and responsibility of the HKSAR’s younger generation in dedicating themselves to the cause of patriotism.

With principal Ng Wun-kit feeling proud of his students’ patriotic bent, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR Lu Xinning sees the president’s letter as conveying the “deepest concern and expectations” for the city’s young people, holding that it gives important “future direction” for fostering patriotic teaching and learning in the city.

In concurrence, the HKSAR government’s under-secretary for education, Sze Chun-fai, said that the president’s attention and care for students and young people in Hong Kong have motivated them to seek a deeper understanding of the dignity and pride of being Chinese.

The consensus that has emerged points to the ideal situation where young people study hard, learn more about the homeland’s development, contribute substantially to the development of Hong Kong and the national rejuvenation, and fulfill the second centenary goal of building the country into a modern socialist country in all respects

In a precise yet fully comprehensive manner, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu interpreted the president’s words as conveying the State leader’s “earnest expectations” for the young residents to accomplish their missions and responsibilities.

Lee said that the president’s written response to the students further signified his care and encouragement for the youth here, which would also become a powerful driver for schools to organize extracurricular activities that help nurture an enhanced understanding of the motherland’s culture and history, in addition to inculcating a sense of belonging and national identity in youngsters.

A television documentary produced in 1996 and repeated last week in commemoration of the death of former chief justice Yang Ti-liang found the highly respected former top judge saying that it was then awkward to be asked about his nationality given that the city was still under British rule. Now, Hong Kong has returned to China; the younger generation, and indeed the adult Chinese population as well, can proudly proclaim that they are Chinese living in a stable and prosperous HKSAR.

President Xi’s personal reply to the students is not an isolated move manifesting his genuine care for the city’s younger generation over the years. Young people’s well-being has in fact always been close to the president’s heart. In delivering his speech on the 25th handover anniversary ceremony of the HKSAR on July 1 last year, the president stressed the importance of giving “special love and care” to the city’s young residents with regard to their difficulties in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and home purchase, so that more opportunities will be available for their proper development and accomplishment.

He expressed his sincere hope that young people should always be guided to become “keenly aware of the trends in both China and the world”, and develop a sense of national pride. He has time and again underscored patriotism as the “core of the spirit” of the Chinese nation — a glorious tradition shared by Hong Kong compatriots — which lays an important foundation for the steady and long-term development of the “one country, two systems” principle.

What then will be the consequence of the encouragement and expectations offered to the city’s young people by President Xi? The consensus that has emerged points to the ideal situation where young people study hard, learn more about the homeland’s development, contribute substantially to the development of Hong Kong and the national rejuvenation, and fulfill the second centenary goal of building the country into a modern socialist country in all respects. Along with the recommendation from Chau Sai-yiu, life honorary adviser of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, that the education sector should achieve further improvement in the quality of patriotic education, legislator Tang Fei believes that schools could better integrate patriotic education with daily teaching activities.

Under the 2022 Policy Address, the Education Bureau has enhanced the adoption of a “multipronged and coordinated approach” to promote national education both on and outside campuses, in a bid to foster students’ national identity and national pride and to raise their awareness to the importance of safeguarding national security. A one-off grant of HK$60 million ($7.7 million) is provided for subsidized kindergartens to organize school-based activities that help students learn Chinese culture from an early age. About 780 public-sector primary and secondary schools have entered into partnerships with over 2,100 schools on the mainland. This Sister School Scheme is targeted to expand by 10 percent in the current year. Meanwhile, increased support is given to post-secondary students to benefit from exposure to cross-boundary exchange activities.

With the full support of the Education Bureau, national and patriotic education in the school sector will certainly grow from strength to strength. For enhanced effectiveness in implementation from time to time, it is in the schools’ interests that the teaching and extracurricular programs designed for national and patriotic education be regularly reviewed for improvement. And in line with the current policy of allowing schools and educators to benefit from one another’s useful experiences in different areas, it will do a lot of good if examples of excellent work and practices on related topics can be shared among responsible teachers across schools.

The author is chairman of Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Organisation.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.