The Central District Community Service Consultative Council held yesterday a plenary meeting at the Patane Activity Centre, during which several of its members urged the government to implement the spirit of the mainland’s Patriotic Education Law in local education, while continuing to pursue patriotic education in the light of Macau’s actual situation.
The government-appointed council’s member Mok Chio Kuan quoted the contents of the mainland’s Patriotic Education Law, which came into force at the beginning of this year, as pointing out the importance of implementing the “Loving the Country, Loving Macau” principle in the light of the actual situation in Macau by strengthening patriotic education on topics such as the law’s general provisions, duties and tasks, its implementation, as well as support measures and safeguards.
She suggested: “While the content is running through the whole elementary and middle school education, grasping the clear political orientation and implementing the spirit of patriotism, it is also necessary to promote the significance of the Patriotic Education Law to parents, strengthen teacher training, raise teachers’ patriotic education awareness and ability, prepare the teaching materials by ourselves according to the culture, history and geography of Macau, and to promote the core values of loving the motherland and loving Macau among young students through multi-faceted means, such as by strengthening young people’s studies about and exchanges with the mainland.”
Fellow member Lei Kit Ian said that as a city rooted in patriotism and love for Macau, it should implement the core spirit of the mainland’s Patriotic Education Law and combine it with the relevant provisions to do a good job in the “Loving the Country, Loving Macau” education, urging the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) to stipulate students’ curricula based on the Patriotic Education Law, such as the “Five Histories”, i.e., the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the New China history, the history of reform and opening-up, the history of the development of socialism and the history of the development of the Chinese nation.
Lei said: “In the coming school year, the bureau will set up a new patriotic education camp for F1 students, in which visits to Zhuhai or the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin are planned. I suggest that site visits to various museums, memorial halls, science and technology museums, cultural centres and art galleries be arranged to create a ‘second classroom’, so as to build up the cultural self-confidence of young students from the perspectives of culture and science and technology, and to do a good job in educating them on patriotism and love for Macau.”
Deputy Convener Wu Hang San called on the government to strengthen the protection, management and utilisation of historical and cultural heritage such as “red resources”, cultural relics and monuments, while also strengthening the setting-up of patriotic education bases in Macau by giving full play to the resources and advantages of venues such as museums, memorials, libraries, science and technology museums, cultural centres, and art galleries.
Patriotic Education Camp to be set up in Coloane
Meanwhile, the council held yesterday a closed-door meeting with two senior officials from the DSEDJ, who briefed the council members about the mainland’s Patriotic Education Law, telling them how the law can be implemented in accordance with the actual situation in Macau in terms of curricula, teaching materials, and school activities.
In the 2024/2025 school year, the bureau will sequentially implement the newly revised curriculum framework and basic academic requirements, publish supplementary teaching materials for National Security Education, revise its guidelines for schools, and launch a Patriotic Education Camp.
In terms of the curriculum framework and the requirements for basic academic qualifications, according to a post-press briefing, the new curriculum will require that all schools in Macau deepen the learning contents of the “National Security”, “Constitution” and “Major National Scientific and Technological Achievements” in the subjects of Information Technology (IT), Morality and Citizenship, History, Geography, Natural Science, General Knowledge and Music, and that the schools must set up a class subject related to patriotic education, with a certain minimum number of hours.
The bureau in the new school year will also publish a set of six supplementary teaching materials on National Security Education covering nursery, junior primary, senior primary, junior secondary, senior secondary and tertiary education levels to support schools and teachers in implementing national security education in the classroom, covering different contents, such as the nation’s flag, emblems and anthems, as well as the Constitution and the Macau Basic Law. It is also stipulated that all the local tertiary education institutions must, starting the new semester, include national education-related liberal studies courses for their students, the press briefing noted.
The bureau, according to the press briefing, has also provided schools with guidelines on teaching and learning, hoping that schools will impose stringent regulations on the assessment and character of teaching staff, as well as their behaviour and conduct, for examples, teachers are prohibited from inculcating ideas that are detrimental to the nation and to the local government, in particular, the dissemination of inaccurate or untruthful information to students, or that would jeopardise national security or the national interest.
In the 2024/2025 school year, a “Patriotic Education Camp” will be set up on the former site of the Luso-Chinese School in Coloane to provide systematic patriotic education camp activities for all F1 students in Macau. The camp will also dovetail with the existing Defence Education Camp for F2 students and the Outdoor Education Camp for F3 students, so as to satisfy the education sector’s demand for camps earmarked for junior secondary school grades.
Government-appointed Central District Social Services Consultative Council Deputy Convener Ao Ieong Kwong Kao (right) and fellow council member Leong Chon Kit pose during a press briefing after the government-appointed committee’s closed-door meeting at the Patane Activity Centre yesterday.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
