The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday passed a government-initiated bill enabling Macau students and teachers at schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations to be entitled to the same rights and benefits as their counterparts studying or working at privately-run schools in Macau.
The bill will take legal effect on June 1 enabling the new legislation to be implemented from the upcoming new 2025/26 school year.
The bill’s outline was passed during a plenary session of the legislature in March, after which the bill was reviewed by its 3rd Standing Committee, before it was resubmitted to yesterday’s plenary session, which Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Wallis O Lam attended, when it was voted on article-by-article in its second and final reading.
The local government submitted the bill to the legislature in February, after the first school run by a Macau organisation started operating in the Guangdong-Macau In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin in September last year. The school, located at Hengqin’s Macau New Neighbourhood (MNN) residential estate, is run by Macau’s Hou Kong Middle School, officially known as Hengqin School Affiliated to Hou Kong Middle School.
The bill passed yesterday amends two current laws regulating the system for privately-run schools in Macau, namely one regulating the operations and management of such schools (Law 15/2020) and the other regulating teaching staff working in such schools (Law 3/2012).
After the new legislation takes effect, provisions listed in the two current laws will generally apply to schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations, except for those that would contravene the mainland’s education rules, enabling 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 or working at privately-run schools in Macau.
For instance, Macau students in such schools will fully enjoy the Macau government’s free education as well as its various subsidies and allowances that their counterparts are entitled to in Macau, while Macau teachers in such schools will be fully entitled to the same subsidies and allowances granted by the Macau government as their counterparts in Macau.
The new legislation will apply to schools to be established in the future as well as existing ones which have started operating before the new legislation takes effect. The Hengqin School Affiliated to Hou Kong Middle School is currently the only school in Hengqin run by a Macau organisation.
According to the new legislation, any organisation that is running a school in Macau and intends to open a school in Hengqin must apply to the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) for permission to run a school in Hengqin.
Only organisations that are running schools in Macau will be able to apply for permission to open schools in Hengqin.
According to the new legislation, schools in Hengqin to be run by such organisations will be schools “affiliated to” their main schools in Macau.
Existing schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations which are already operating there will have to apply for the bureau’s permission after the new legislation takes effect.
During yesterday’s plenary session, O noted that while schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations can employ teachers from anywhere such as Macau residents, mainlanders, and foreign residents, the current Macau law regulating teaching staff working in privately-run schools in Macau (Law 3/2012), according to the new legislation (the bill passed yesterday), will only apply to Macau teachers who choose to sign their employment contracts in line with Macau’s Labour Relations Law.
O pointed out that Macau teachers working in schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations can also choose to sign their employment contracts in line with the mainland’s labour laws and regulations, in which case they will not be covered by Law 3/2012, adding that it will be up to Macau teachers as to whether they wish to sign their employment contracts in accordance with labour laws in Macau or in the mainland.
O also underlined that the government will require schools in Hengqin run by Macau organisations to give employment priority to Macau teachers.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Wallis O Lam addresses yesterday’s plenary session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle.– Photo courtesy of TDM
This photo taken earlier this year shows 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
