The head of the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) Curriculum Development and Assessment Division, Cheang Sek Kit, said yesterday that artificial intelligence (AI) and computer programming courses were expected to be part of Macau’s education syllabus for primary school and junior and senior high school students in their respective information technology (IT) curriculum this year.
In line with the local government’s “1+4” development strategy, the bureau has been promoting science popularisation and education via aspects such as policy, curriculum and teaching, as well as resource investment, Cheang said, adding that the bureau was currently working on a revision for the education sector’s basic academic attainments and curriculum framework.
The ”1+4” development strategy is aimed at promoting four key industries - big health, modern finance, high-tech, and conventions and exhibitions, including culture and sport – for Macau’s appropriate economic diversification, the government has said.
Cheang said: “About one-third or one-quarter of the class time in IT curriculum lessons in primary and secondary schools will have to be spent on teaching AI and computer programming-related knowledge.”
Cheang reaffirmed that the curriculum would be fine-tuned but the overall class hours would not be “significantly” adjusted, stressing that only appropriate adjustments would be made to the original IT subject.
He added that the current “curriculum framework” had given local schools enough flexibility in setting up their lessons, enabling the education sector to implement school-based courses according to their own characteristics.
The amendment to the curriculum framework meets the need to incorporate the necessary conditions for future development, which, Cheang said, he believed “will not cause too much pressure” on students.
Cheang made the remarks when taking part in a current affairs phone-in programme, Ou Mun Gwong Cheuhng, hosted by Ou Mun Tin Toi – the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM.
Meanwhile, last year’s number of visitors to the Macau Science Centre in Nape was about 660,000, which was close to the pre-pandemic level of 2019, with the attendance rate of local residents reaching 47 percent, an increase of seven percentage points over the same period in 2019, Macau Science Centre Board Member and Executive Committee Member U Hon Sang said at yesterday’s phone-in programme regarding Macau’s science popularisation and education.
Cheang Sek Kit (centre), who heads the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) Curriculum Development and Assessment Division, Macau Science Centre Board Member and Executive Committee Member U Hon Sang (right) and Pui Ching Middle School teacher Thomas Lao Kun Wa attend a current affairs phone-in programme, Ou Mun Gwong Cheuhng, hosted by Ou Mun Tin Toi – the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM, yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
