The D. José Costa Nunes Kindergarten will be included in the list of schools to offer free of charge education for residents in the upcoming academic year. The agreement was signed yesterday between the Association for Macanese Education (APIM) and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ).
To the Times, the president of APIM, Miguel de Senna Fernandes, explained that the agreement would not lead to any significant changes in the operation of the school, nor to its teaching.
“I hope there will be no surprises [at a later stage],” said Senna Fernandes. “They [DSEJ] have a high consideration for the kindergarten and any potential change [in the current system] would require a very long study and thinking.”
Instead, the changes to the institution would “have to do with the accounting, since we will be dealing with subsidies that come directly from DSEJ and in that sense we must have a very rigorous approach to the accounts since we are dealing with public funds.”
“But this does not upset us in any way since we are already used to this and the accounts have been reviewed one by one and without problems,” he explained, adding that he expected the transition to be hassle-free.
For the academic year of 2019/20, the only significant difference for parents and guardians is that “Macau residents will stop paying the normal tuition fee from the start of the next academic year, from September 2019.”
The measure, as in other institutions, applies only for the tuition fee as additional services will continue to be charged. “Parents will continue to pay the extra costs such as the extra-curricular activities and the meals and other small things.”
Senna Fernandes also noted that only Macau residents could be included in this system, acknowledging that the school does have several students that are not Macau residents and would not see any difference next year. RM
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