張文光

English

Cheung Man-kwong was born in Hong Kong on 15 September 1954, with ancestral roots in Taishan, Guangdong, and is nicknamed Cheung Man. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in social science, majoring in economics; his first job was as a supply teacher at a primary school — the government at the time barred university graduates from teaching in primary schools, which led him to examine the structure and resourcing of the education system itself — and he taught at primary schools in Kwun Tong and Whampoa for more than a decade, gaining first-hand knowledge of frontline teachers' pressures and pay. The Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, founded in 1973 by figures such as Szeto Wah and drawing its members mainly from primary and secondary teachers, is the city's largest teachers' union and was the starting point of his political life: by the 1980s he was a core member handling rights and policy work, and in 1990 he was elected its president, succeeding founding president Szeto Wah, holding the post until May 2010 and afterwards becoming vice-chairman of its supervisory committee. In 1991 he was first elected to the Legislative Council for the Education functional constituency, and after the handover he continued as a Legislative Council member until 2012, when he stood down after 21 years — one of the longest-serving education-sector legislators. He was a member of the Education Commission from 1993 to 2005, a standing committee member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China from 1989, and a founding member of the Democratic Party in 1994. He also served as a Yuen Long District Council member and in 2018 received an honorary fellowship from the Education University of Hong Kong for his long service to education. In office he focused on teachers' rights, the allocation of education resources and curriculum reform, pushing for better qualification and pay structures, and spoke regularly on staffing levels, mother-tongue teaching, small-class teaching and special education. He backed mother-tongue teaching as an aid to pupils' comprehension while pressing for adequate support, and raised concerns about cuts to education spending, school closures and teacher redundancy, urging the government to maintain its investment in education.