What is "scholarism"

n. (context archaic rare English) scholarship.Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd ed., 1989.

Scholarism was a Hong Kong pro-democracy student activist group active in the fields of Hong Kong's education policy, political reform and youth policy. It was reported to have 200 members in May 2015.

The group was known for its stance on defending the autonomy of Hong Kong's education policy from Beijing's unconstitutional interference. It was also the leading organisation during the 2014 Hong Kong protests, better known as the "Umbrella Revolution".

Founded by a number of secondary school students on 29 May 2011, the group first came to media attention when they organised a protest against the “ moral and national education” put forward by the Hong Kong government in 2012. At the height of the event, 120,000 students and members of the public attended the demonstration and forced the government to retract its plans to introduce “moral and national education” as a compulsory subject in schools.

Scholarism ceased functioning in March 2016. Core members including Joshua Wong, Oscar Lai and Agnes Chow formed a new political party Demosisto in April.