October 25, 2022
HONG KONG – The Education Bureau (EDB) of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has announced details of the requirement for newly appointed teachers to pass the Basic Law and National Security Law Test (BLNST) starting from the 2023-24 school year.
The EDB issued a circular in this regard to all schools in the city on Monday.
Currently, newly-appointed teachers in public sector schools are required to pass the Basic Law Test in order to be considered for appointment.
As announced in the Chief Executive’s 2022 Policy Address, the Basic Law Test requirement will be extended to cover all Direct Subsidy Scheme schools and kindergartens joining the kindergarten education scheme starting from the 2023-24 school year.
The Basic Law is closely related to our daily lives and has been a key element of the school curriculum, which shall be strengthened.
Spokesman, Education Bureau, HKSAR
The test covers the Basic Law and the National Security Law.
“The Basic Law is closely related to our daily lives and has been a key element of the school curriculum, which shall be strengthened,” an EDB spokesman said.
The requirement applies to all teacher grade ranks, including principals. Apart from regular teachers, newly-appointed teachers remunerated with a cash grant must also obtain a pass in the test, according to a government news release.
The EDB will conduct five rounds of the BLNST for degree holders and non-degree holders in this school year, in view of the different entry requirements for teaching posts in secondary and primary schools as well as kindergartens.
“Teachers should have a correct understanding of the Basic Law so that they could enlighten students and help them correctly understand the constitutional status of Hong Kong and develop positive attitudes towards the Basic Law and ‘one country, two systems’,” the EDB spokesman added.
Teachers who have sat for and obtained a pass result in any Basic Law Test and plan to join or change schools in the 2023-24 school year must take the BLNST and attain a pass result in order to be considered for appointment.
The written test under the bureau is a bilingual paper, in English and Chinese, and candidates scoring at least 10 out of 20 multiple-choice questions will be deemed to have a pass result in the BLNST, the news release added.
Teachers with a pass result in the BLNST issued by the Civil Service Bureau will be deemed to have met the relevant requirement and are not required to take the Education Bureau’s BLNST again.
The first round of the BLNST, at degree level, is scheduled for Dec 3. Those who are interested may apply from 9 am on Oct 26 to 5 pm on Nov 7 through an online application system on the EDB webpage.
As places for the test are limited, applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The remaining test dates will be announced in due course, the release added.