The government plans to merge the current 10 public schools into eight in the 2022/23 school year, five of which will be schools each running kindergarten, primary and secondary classes, commonly known as “through-train” schools.
Wong Ka Ki, who heads the Non-Tertiary Education Department of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ), made the announcement during a press conference yesterday after a closed-door joint meeting of the Non-Tertiary Education Committee, the Higher Education Committee, and the Youth Affairs Committee.
Yesterday’s meeting of the three government-appointed committees was held at the Services Platform Complex for Commercial and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (PSCs) in Nam Van.
Macau’s total of 77 schools running in the current 2021/22 school year comprise 10 public schools and 67 privately-run schools.
According to the bureau’s website, currently only two of the 10 public schools are “through-train” schools that run kindergarten, primary and secondary classes, namely Seac Pai Van Public School (石排灣公立學校) and Zheng Guanying Public School (鄭觀應公立學校). The former is located in Coloane’s sprawling Seac Pai Van public housing estate, while the latter is situated in the peninsula’s Toi San district.
The other public schools comprise those only running secondary school classes, those only running kindergarten and primary classes, and a kindergarten – “Girassol” (“Sunflower”) Luso-Chinese Kindergarten (樂富中葡幼稚園).
In Cantonese jargon, “through-train” schools are also known as “one-dragon” schools.
Speaking during yesterday’s press conference, Wong said that his bureau was planning to merge the current 10 public schools into five “one-dragon” schools, two primary schools that also run kindergarten classes, and a kindergarten. Wong said that his bureau expected the merger to get off the ground in the 2022/23 school year.
However, Wong said, the two primary schools and the kindergarten will only continue to run for “a period of time” from the next school year, which means that the city’s public education sector will finally have only five public “through-train” schools that each run kindergarten, primary and secondary classes.
Meanwhile, when asked by reporters how the government would tackle the predicament in which foreign teachers are leaving international schools in the city and the private Portuguese School – which is located near the Grand Lisboa hotel-casino tower – because of which the falling number of foreign teachers in these schools has become an issue, Wong merely said that the local government must always give priority to its principle of COVID-19 prevention work when considering whether to exempt foreign nationals from its entry ban. Wong said that the local government was in the process of recruiting foreign teachers currently staying in the mainland.
Non-resident foreigners (i.e., foreign nationals without a Macau ID card) who have stayed in the mainland or Hong Kong for at least 21 days prior to their intended entry into Macau can apply for exemptions from the Macau government’s entry ban for certain important reasons.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, non-resident foreigners have, in general, been barred from entering Macau since March last year.
Wong Ka Ki, who heads the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) Non-Tertiary Education Department, addresses yesterday’s press conference after a closed-door joint meeting of the Non-Tertiary Education Committee, the Higher Education Committee, and the Youth Affairs Committee. Photo courtesy of TDM
