Educational Development: Macao Experience

 Sou Choi Fai , Director-General of Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Macao

Madam Chairperson, your Excellences, Ladies and Gentleman,

On behalf of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, I am very grateful and honored to have been invited this Education Forum for Asia in Beijing.

The twenty-first century is a new challenge to Macao SAR in terms of economical and social development. Education is always views as the panacea of developing a society.

Since the beginning of the 21^st century, Macao SAR has therefore been orderly launching various education reforms to meet the needs of development. One of our prime objectives of education reforms is the enhancement of education quality.

1.      Education System in Macao and its current development

First of all, I would like to outline the education system in Macao and its current development. The resent Macao school system is a 2-1-6-3-3 model. It consists of two years of kindergarten, one year of preparatory program for Primary Education, six years of Primary Education, three years of Junior Secondary Education and two or three years of Secondary Education. In the 2004-2005 academic-year, the total number of students in Macao was 95,485. Among them, 10,962 or 11% were form kindergarten and the Preparatory Year for Primary Education; 37,120 or 39% were from Primary Education; 46,873 or 49% were form Secondary Education, and 530 or 1% were from Primary Education. As for the teaching force, the Macao SAR has now 4,399 teachers in all levels of the non-tertiary education.

Students in Macao can enjoy 10 years of free compulsory education starting form the Preparatory Year for Primary Education throughout Junior Secondary education.

The majority of schools in Macao are privately owned. In the 2004-2005 academic year, 75 out of 89 schools in Macao are private schools. Private school in Macao has high degree of autonomy; it has full control in terms of administrative, financial and teaching aspects. Although those schools are privately owned, they are all subsidized by the government offers various kinds of subsidized by the government to different extents. Aside from the subsidy on free education, the government offers various kinds of subsidies to further develop and improve the quality of education.

During the baby boom in the late 80’s to early 90’s, about 7,000 babies were born each year and this high birth-rate has created a big burned for schools. Since there were not enough resources to meet the demand, some schools once had 80 students per class. Along with the decrease in birth-rate and the expansion of schools, the average class size has been reduced dramatically over the years. In the 2004-2005 academic-year; the average class size was 37.9 students. Apart from the decrease in average class size, the student-teacher ratio has dropped from 25.7 in the 1999-2000 academic-year to 21.7 in the 2004-2005 academic-year.

Macao SAR government does not offer any uniform assessment test for students to take at the end of their senior secondary education. However, in the year 2003, students from Macao joined the worldwide assessment test known as “Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)”. They scored above average among 200 thousand students rank among the top 10s in mathematics, science and problem solving in the PISA tests.

2.      Education Reform

Macao began her education reform in 2002. Besides a response to the changing social needs, education reform in Macao is also a prompt reply to the prevailing world trends in the 21^st century. The reform, which adopts a core value of “Continual Improvement and Directive Development”, carries a vision of “creating quality life by quality education”. Quality education has been adopted as the ultimate aim of the reform. To put the whole social re-engineering work in simple words, we would like to educate our new generations in Macao to become all-rounded citizens, who are patriotic, responsible, healthy both physically and mentally, moral and spiritual, as well as in rich possession of cultural and artistic sentiment. We would also like to see the new generations embrace the characteristics of self-respect and confidence, caring of the society and the world. It is also hoped that the new generations will become a modern man who are able to “learn to learn, learn to do, learn to live, and learn to cope with others”. Moreover, we also love to grow together with the students, the teachers, the parents and the schools. We hope to promote life-long learning and professional development among teachers, to facilitate learning-families, learning-schools and learning-communities so that Macao SAR can become a vigorous city satiated with cultural sense. Bearing these in mind, we have earnestly committed ourselves to implement the reform.

Education in Macao is implemented under Education Laws. The current Law of Macao Education system has been adopted over 10 years since its promulgation in 1991. Since then, there has been tremendous change both in social contexts and in the demands upon education from the new era. Consequently, the Macao SAR started the review and revision of Macao Education System in 2002,. After an extensive collection from all walks of life in society, a legal draft of the “Non-tertiary Education System of Macao SAR” and relevant documents have just been completed. The draft will soon be tabled in the new Legislative Assembly for legislation process. Various changes have been included in the new amended law of Education System. These include encouraging schools to adopt more technical and vocational curriculum so as to provide students with more learning choices; providing ample opportunities for teachers to participate in professional development; promoting the idea of “communization of schools” and reforming the curriculum incessantly.

A well-equipped school is essential for students to learn effectively. Therefore, the Macao SAR government places great attention in helping different schools to improve school environment and equipment. A successful education will not be realized without a quality team of teachers. To enhance the overall quality of the teaching force of the Macao SAR, persistent professional growth is indisputable. Upon the idea of life-long learning, ample resources and opportunities are provided for teachers to further develop their career. Through various channels (Internet services, Educational Resources Centre etc.), teaching staff is provided with different teaching resources and information platforms. Aside from organizing various forms of training courses and exchange activities in Macao and outside the region, the Bureau has also launched in recent year a “Subvention Scheme of School-based Training” with an aim to encourage schools to organize training course for their teachers in accordance with the characteristics and missions of the schools. Quality education has to take into consideration of individual needs, which inevitable includes the school.

To ensure a quality education, the Macao SAR government plans to undertake an integrated evaluation on schools. Feedbacks or reports will be provides to the schools after the evaluations for the reforms of school administration and teaching culture; and for promoting a constant innovation process in the schools.

Upon the changes in the reform, the spirit of school and teaching autonomy will be upheld and the school system will be further perfected in the coming years. For instance, it is planned that the Preparatory Year for Primary School will become the third year of kindergarten so as to prevent the kindergarten from becoming too much alike of Primary Education on one hand, and on the other hand to help to shape the education in accordance with the physical and psychological development of children. In addition, the Senior Secondary Education will be consolidated into three years in order to reflect the universality of the Senior Secondary Education.

3.      Closing Remarks

Successful education reform requires constant inputs. In recent years, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau has been working closely with outside institutions for professional supports. For instance, Beijing Normal University has helped in conducting a research on “Professional development of teaching staff”, Chinese University of Hong Kong has provided support to us in analyzing the results of Macao students on PISA, Kaohsiung Normal University of Taiwan province is helping a research on “Continual Education”, and a Singapore company on a research in determining the future planning of school premises and equipments. The result of these researches will be considered in the process of policy formulation. Aside from these, the Bureau has organized many visits and conferences to exchange ideas and experiences on education with other organizations outside Macao.

Looking into the future, the Macao SAR will adopt the core value of “Continual Improvement and Directive Development” as guiding principle on strategic planning. Through the adoption of previous successful experience on reformation and the implementation of the present innovation, especially the amendment of the Law of Education System, together with a gear up with the practical elements of change in educational process, the future of education development in Macao SAR shall enter a new era: an era of positive change.

Thank you.