The main issue facing Northern Ireland in the future may not be its constitutional status but, rather, how to achieve shared citizenship based on mutual respect and human rights.

This is according to a University of Ulster professor who was speaking in Hong Kong this week as part in the International Symposium on National Education.

Professor Alan Smith, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Education at the university, was among 11 major speakers who have been invited by Hong Kong authorities to take part in the event on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Professor Smith contended that a lack of consensus about national identity required forms of citizenship education that go beyond simple, patriotic models involving uncritical loyalty to a single nation state.

“Our challenge is to develop a ‘shared civic culture’ through voluntary integration, rather than ‘peaceful coexistence’ through separate development. This has implications for the values, content and methods necessary for young people’s involvement in civic education,” he said.

Organisers say that, following mainland China’s resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, there have been increasing concerns in the community that more should be done by way of civic education to promote a sense of cultural and national identity in the island.

The symposium’s aim is to see whether international experience can provide valuable insights for Hong Kong on ways of promoting national education to the general public outside schools.

(MB)