The Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) said in a statement yesterday that about 75,000 non-tertiary education students will be covered by the government’s free education system in the new academic year which begins on Wednesday.
The statement said that 77 non-tertiary education institutions (formal and recurrent education), which comprise a total of 120 schools and their respective branches, will run in the new 2021/22 academic year.
Macau’s non-tertiary education comprises formal education and recurrent education. The 15-year formal education comprises kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, including students with special needs. In addition, a number of schools in Macau provide recurrent education in the primary and secondary education levels.
According to yesterday’s statement, 112 out of the 120 institutions that will operate in the upcoming new academic year run formal education, while the remainder run recurrent education.
Yesterday’s statement said that 107 out of the 112 institutions that run formal education will be covered by the government’s free education system in the new 2021/22 academic year. As a result, the statement said, 95.5 percent of the institutions running formal education will be covered by free education, benefiting about 75,000 students.
Yesterday’s statement did not mention the total number of non-tertiary education students enrolled in the new 2021/22 academic year.
In the outgoing 2020/21 academic year, Macau had a total of 83,984 students enrolled in 78 non-tertiary education institutions (formal and recurrent education) comprising 121 schools and their respective branches.
The bureau said last year that about 76,000 non-tertiary education students were covered by its free education system in the 2020/21 academic year. Most of Macau’s non-tertiary education institutions are privately run.
Yesterday’s statement also said that the new 2021/22 academic year will have 10 higher education institutions, unchanged from the outgoing 2020/21 academic year which had 39,093 students enrolled.
Macau’s whole education sector, namely the non-tertiary and higher education sectors, has been overseen by a single public entity, the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) since February this year, when two now-defunct entities, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) and the Higher Education Bureau (DSES), merged.
COVID-19 prevention
Yesterday’s statement also underlined that the city’s non-tertiary education institutions and higher education institutions have submitted their respective plans concerning COVID-19 prevention measures for the new academic year to the Education and Youth Development Bureau, which, the statement said, has meanwhile drafted guidelines for the education institutions on how they should conduct teaching while sticking to COVID-19 prevention measures.
The statement also said that in the wake of the COVID-19 uncertainty resulting from the Delta variant four-member family cluster which was confirmed early this month, the bureau will regularly hold follow-up meetings with the city’s non-tertiary education institutions and higher education institutions to discuss the government’s latest COVID-19 arrangements. The bureau, the statement said, has also told the education institutions to cancel or suspend any activities involving the gathering of crowds and exchange trips outside Macau that were scheduled to take place, with the aim of reducing the risk of novel coronavirus transmissions.
Macau has not recorded a new local case for 22 consecutive days after the Delta variant family cluster was confirmed on August 3.
COVID-19 vaccinations campaigns
The statement also said that the bureau will strengthen its promotional campaigns for COVID-19 vaccinations, in line with the government’s lowering of the minimum age for BioNTech inoculations from 16 to 12, which took effect in June.
Two types of COVID-19 vaccines are currently available in Macau, China’s Sinopharm inactivated vaccine and Germany’s BioNTech mRNA vaccine. Currently, Sinopharm jabs are administered to those aged 18 or over in Macau, while BioNTech shots are given to those aged 12 or over.
In yesterday’s statement, the bureau pledged that it will continue to encourage students whose age is covered by Macau’s COVID-19 vaccination programme and teaching staff to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus as soon as possible in order for Macau to achieve COVID-19 herd immunity.
New assessment rules
Meanwhile, yesterday’s statement also pointed out that the government’s new regulations on schools and kindergartens’ assessments of their students will take effect for the new 2021/22 academic year,
According to the new regulations, schools and kindergartens should evaluate their students’ performances by combining the use of formative assessments – assessments that are constantly being carried out throughout a course – and summative assessments – namely tests and final examinations. However, according to the new regulations, the non-tertiary education institutions should primarily use formative assessments.
In yesterday’s statement, the bureau pledged that it will constantly push non-tertiary education institutions to primarily use formative assessments to evaluate their students’ learning performances.
The statement also said that the bureau will continue to draft and publish its own textbooks and teaching materials for local schools to choose and use. Most of textbooks used by local schools are still from Hong Kong and the mainland.
The statement also said that the bureau has required local schools to check the weight of their students’ schoolbags at least twice on a random basis per academic year, with the aim of ensuring that the weight does not exceed the officially required maximum levels.
Meanwhile, the statement also said that the bureau will continue to support local higher education institutions in strengthening cooperation with their counterparts in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), as well as enterprises and research institutions there.
