Hong Kong drops disputed school lessons

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HONG KONG, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Weeks of protests have led the government to cut short plans to make Hong Kong schoolchildren take Chinese patriotism classes, city officials said.

The classes will now be optional, the BBC reported.

"The schools are given the authority to decide when and how they would like to introduce the moral and national education," said Leung Chun-ying, chief executive and president of the Executive Council of Hong Kong.

More than 100,000 protesters had demonstrated at government buildings against the proposed curriculum.

Critics had charged the classes were attempts by the Chinese government in Beijing to brainwash students. In addition to general civics instruction, the classes included lesson on appreciating mainland China.

The classes were due to start in primary schools in September and in secondary schools in 2013.

An official Chinese Communist Party publication recently wrote that people in Hong Kong, a former British colony, needed the lessons because they had been brainwashed by Western ideology.

Residents of Hong Kong enjoy a relatively higher degree of freedom than their mainland counterparts.