HONG KONG: The Catholic diocese is taking the government to the Court of Appeal, arguing a school-based management policy would infringe its religious autonomy over the church's schools.

Joseph Fok, for the government, denied the reform was in violation of the Basic Law. Fok said the 50-year Hong Kong autonomy statement in the Basic Law only applied to relationships between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central government, not to any other relationships, such as the ongoing dispute which has involved only the SAR and the Catholic Diocese.

The citation of the provision that the SAR's way of life would remain unchanged for 50 years made in the Basic Law did not help the diocese make its case, Fok argued.

It is the diocese's second attempt to oppose the 2004 amendment to the Education Ordinance, under which the government requires all aided schools to establish incorporated management committees (IMC) to enforce a 60-40 split in the management bodies.

The new policy allows sponsoring groups to appoint only 60 percent of the committee members, while representatives of the teachers, parents and alumni will fill in the remaining 40 percent -a far cry from the diocese's 100 percent dominance in the past. The diocese is concerned that outsiders will affect the attitude, philosophy and ethos within its schools. However, the Court of First Instance did not uphold the Catholic Diocese in 2006.

On the final day of the two-day hearing yesterday before the appeal judges, Justice Frank Stock, Justice Wally Yeung Chun-kuen and Justice Michael Hartmann, Fok reiterated the new policy was intended only to enhance schools' transparency and accountability in management, especially when it came to those sponsored by public funds.

"Teachers, parents and alumni are not strangers to diocesan schools. On the contrary, they are the directly interested groups who should have a say in the decision-making process of these schools," said Fok.

Fok said the new policy was only intended to improve Hong Kong's education systems. As the government provided huge funding to aided schools, it was also empowered to regulate the management of aided schools for the purpose of transparency and accountability.

Martin Lee Chu-ming, on behalf of the Catholic Diocese, argued that the Basic Law also contains provision to protect religious organizations' right to run schools according to their previous practice. He said the new policy was ruining the system of church schools in an unprecedented way.

He said that congruent thinking "is very important to church schools. Under IMC, the power of the diocese in managing its schools will be substantially reduced, which has never happened before," said Lee. "It is not acceptable to the Catholic Diocese. It is a change of school identity."

Fok denied the introduction of IMC would infringe religious autonomy and adversely impact diocesan schools. He argued the new policy would not result in any material transformation to them. Fok maintained that representing a majority on the committees would enable the Catholic diocese to continue setting school vision and mission. As he sees it, no change in substance has been made to the functions and elections of the principal, other administrators, and teachers at the diocese schools. The concepts and objectives underlying catholic school management have not been adversely affected, he maintains.

During the first-day hearing on Tuesday, Lee argued the reforms would ruin the atmosphere and culture of the management of the church schools to the extent that the diocese could no longer run its schools in accordance with its previous practice.

According to the amendment, all government-aided schools have to set up IMC by the year 2012.

(HK Edition 11/19/2009 page1)