A Chinese teacher who claims she has been blocked from certain teaching jobs in Scotland is taking Stirling Council to an industrial tribunal this week.
The first hearing began in Dundee on Tuesday, April 1, presided over by Judge Sandy Kemp.
Rong Rong MacLeod, who moved to the UK from China in 1987, has worked as a tutor, teacher and learning assistant in the Stirling Council area for the last 20 years.
Her claims include being blacklisted from some teaching roles, being asked to teach Mandarin for free, and being “watched” by Chinese government officials due to previous political activism.
The 63-year-old’s position is that she is being discriminated against on grounds of her political beliefs and ethnicity.
As well as teaching Mandarin to adults and children, she has also taken on more generalised teaching roles in the past.
But Mrs MacLeod says she has been blocked from certain teaching jobs in Stirling recently, which were then given to individuals with links to Chinese funding.
The local authority rejects these allegations, with its legal representative arguing on Tuesday that Mrs MacLeod’s ability to consistently get supply teacher work at Stirling Council schools disproves her claim.
The claimant has recently worked in temporary or supply positions at various Stirling area schools, including Dunblane High School, McLaren High School in Callander, Allan Primary School, and Aberlady Primary School.
READ MORE: Bannockburn High head accused of vendetta against Stirling teacher at tribunal
However, she claims to have encountered difficulty regarding working at both Stirling High School and Bannockburn High School.
Asked to ‘be a spy’ for China in 1980s
While giving evidence during Tuesday’s hearing, Mrs MacLeod said she attended a public demonstration in London in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in Beijing.
After that, she claims she received “constant” telephone calls, and visits from three Chinese embassy workers who threatened her for speaking out against the Chinese government.
Prior to 1989, the teacher had been a member of the Chinese Communist Party, but gave up her membership following the events at Tiananmen Square.
She claims that when she moved to the UK to work in the textile industry, she was instructed to report back anything “of interest to China”.
“I was asked to report everything I saw and learned,” she told the tribunal.
Mrs MacLeod’s legal representative asked: “Espionage? Spying? Were you asked, in effect, to be a spy?”
She replied: “Yes.”
Claims of Confucius Institute interference
Mrs MacLeod said the “blacklisting” dates back to 2016, when a full-time Mandarin teaching position at Stirling High School was quickly filled, before she had chance to apply.
She told the tribunal she was unable to find out who had been given the job, which was surprising, given the small number of Mandarin teachers in Scotland.
She later found out the role had gone to Li Hong Yu, who still teaches Mandarin at Stirling High School.
Mrs MacLeod claimed Li Hong Yu was given the job while still a student volunteer at the Chinese state-sponsored Confucius Institute, and that he was not a properly qualified teacher, or “even a teaching assistant”.
There are currently four Confucius Institutes set up in Scottish universities, and dozens of Confucius classroom hubs servicing primary and secondary schools, as well as the influential Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS).
These are mostly funded by Beijing to promote language and culture.
The claimant said similar situations arose related to several other teaching and support staff positions, including at Braehead Primary School and a further supply teacher vacancy at Stirling High School.
She said Li Hong Yu interviewed her for the latter role, along with head teacher Ally Macleod.
She did not get the job and commented that she was “not surprised”.
Allegations of ‘blacklisting’ from certain Stirling secondary schools
Mrs MacLeod also told the tribunal she was blacklisted from supply teaching at Bannockburn High School after refusing to teach pupils Mandarin for free, at the request of head teacher Karen Hook.
Stirling Council confirmed that Mrs Hook suggested Mrs MacLeod could run a voluntary Mandarin club at the school after showing “enthusiasm”, but denies the allegations of blacklisting.
The claimant submitted another Stirling High School job application in 2023, this time to be a support learning assistant (SLA), and did not receive an interview.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Stirling High School’s school resource officer Fiona McGonigle said Mrs MacLeod’s application did not demonstrate enough experience of supporting “more challenging children”.
When asked, Mrs McGonigle said she did not discriminate based on the claimant’s race, and had “absolutely no awareness” of her political views.
Mrs McGonigle also stated that she knows Li Hong Yu in a professional capacity, but has no contact with the Confucius Institute.
Teacher claims she is ‘being replaced’
As The Courier reported in December 2024, Mrs MacLeod claims she came face to face with a representative of the Chinese government more recently, just before the Covid pandemic began.
She told The Sunday Post: “During a tense meeting, he told me China had not forgotten my protest over the Tiananmen Square massacre. Then he said, ‘we are watching you’.”
She added: “Afterwards, I realised I was no longer receiving as many calls to work as a support teacher or even as a teaching assistant in Stirling.
“I was being replaced by teachers from the Confucius Institutes, which are ultimately paid for by China.”
The employment tribunal hearings are scheduled to continue on Wednesday.
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