The Legislative Assembly (AL) has passed the outline of a government-initiated bill aiming to enable Macau students and teachers of schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations to be entitled to the same rights and benefits as their counterparts studying at privately-run schools in Macau.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Wallis O Lam introduced the outline of the bill during a plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle on Friday.
After Friday’s passage of its outline, the bill is slated to be passed to one of the legislature’s standing committees for an article-by-article review, after which it will be resubmitted to another plenary session for its second and final debate and article-by-article vote.
The government proposes that the bill will take legal effect on June 1 this year – provided that it is passed by the legislature in its second and final reading, aiming to ensure that the new legislation can be implemented from the upcoming new 2025/26 school year, O said.
The bill whose outline was passed on Friday proposes amendments to two current laws regulating the system for privately-run schools. The bill proposes that the system will also apply to Macau students and teachers of schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations.
This photo taken in January shows a car driving past the school in the Macau New Neighbourhood (MNN) residential estate on Zhuhai’s Hengqin island run by Macau’s Hou Kong Middle School, which started operating in September last year. – Photo: Tony Wong
