Macau’s declining birth rate has contributed to there being fewer school-aged children, and civic leader Ao Ieong Kuong Kao urged the government yesterday to attract more non-resident students to study in Macau by opening up the non-tertiary education sector to tackle Macau’s current problem of under-enrolment, while The Chinese Educators Association of Macau Vice President Vong Kuoc Ieng urged the government to assist “disadvantaged” schools in enhancing their competitiveness to stabilise their teaching force.
Attending the government-appointed Central District Community Service Consultative Council at the Patane Municipal Market Activity Centre yesterday, Ao Ieong quoted statistics as pointing out that Macau’s birth rate is projected to decline further, with only 3,712 newborns last year, i.e., 632 fewer babies than in the previous year, a record low since 1985.
He also pointed out that some members of the local education sector have predicted that in the next five years, some schools and educational organisations will face an existential crisis, with the problem of under-enrolment affecting the stability of the teaching force.
“Liberalisation of non-tertiary education enrolment in Macau is one of the effective ways to alleviate the current problem of under-enrolment,” Ao Ieong said, adding that non-tertiary education usually has flexible and diversified curriculum offerings to meet the needs of different kinds of students.
With Macau’s economic development and talent import policy, more and more enterprises choose to set up offices or branches in the city, followed by a wave of expatriates and their families, leading to the problem of schooling of their children in Macau, especially in the field of non-higher education and, therefore, opening up the non-tertiary education sector would provide the children with more opportunities, thereby tackling the problem of under-enrolment, according to Ao Ieong.
He also said that in addition to lowering the teacher-student ratio and maintaining a certain number of classes, easing the pressure of student enrolment also involves upgrading the quality and diversity of curricula, strengthening parent-school cooperation, promoting the internationalisation of education and integrating it into the interconnected development of the Guangdong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), fostering the sustainable development of non-tertiary education with quality education services, while creating more job opportunities and stabilising the teaching force.
The term “non-tertiary” education refers to Macau’s kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, while “tertiary” education comprises Macau’s higher education establishments such as universities and other degree-granting institutions.
Meanwhile, speaking to the Post by phone yesterday, Vong pointed out that some “disadvantaged” schools face difficulties in enrolment due to the impact of the decrease of children among the population: “Nearing the end of this year’s enrolment for kindergartens, the actual number of children enrolled in some schools is only single-digit, or only about a dozen, which will have some unstable effects on the schools’ operating resources and teaching force.”
With the continuously declining birth rate from 5,026 newborns in 2021 to just 3,712 last year, coupled with the opening of new schools in recent years, Vong said that from this year onwards, “there’s going to be a wave of class reductions in Macau’s non-tertiary education sector, leading to great concern for Macau’s “disadvantaged” schools which will be more difficult to operate”.
Macau had also experienced a low birth rate during the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Vong said, adding: “But at that time there was a better situation…, at the end of the outbreak, a number of mainland students moved here to study, which solved the problem of low enrolment at that time. Even though the number of K1 students then was not so good, considering enrolment in the other grades, the number of students in each school was more or less enough. The problem that we are facing this year and beyond is that local schools will not be able to enrol enough students because we don’t see a large number of immigrants coming in, creating a greater challenge for the future.”
Commenting on Ao Ieong’s suggestion on the liberalisation of non-tertiary education enrolment in Macau, Vong said that although each school in Macau has its own characteristics, compared to the mainland’s, Macau’s schools, generally speaking, are not “too attractive” because of their environment, space, and other conditions.
“We should take advantage of the current low birth rate to launch more education reforms,” Vong said, suggesting the government take the lead to assist “disadvantaged” schools in upgrading both their hardware and software facilities, retaining the characteristics of each school while narrowing the gaps between.
The government’s “centralised admission system for kindergartens” received registrations from 4,600 school-age children this year, according to official statistics.
The share of children aged up to 14 among the local population fell from 14.5 percent in 2021 to 13.2 percent in 2023, according to the latest available demographics by the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC).
A kindergarten student and her family’s domestic helper walk along Rua da Ribeira do Patane yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
