DSEJ online study platform to help schools to launch September

The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) is establishing a centralized online study platform for local schools to use. According to DSEJ Director Lou Pak Sang, who said he expects the platform to launch this September, the platform will serve to improve the quality of Macau’s online teaching.
Yesterday, many of the city’s pupils returned to campus for the first time since the end of January when the SAR government announced school suspension amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
In the course of the last four months, students of all educational levels were supposed to continue their studies at home. One of the study methods was studying through an online education platform.
Educational institutions, especially tertiary ones, built online study platforms for teachers to deliver lectures to students remotely. For non-tertiary levels, the local government released self-education materials to local parents. The materials include voice recordings and videos prepared by relevant teachers. The local government suggested that parents supervise their children’s self-education at home.
Even though few secondary schools built online education platforms, the outcome of these independently designed and managed platforms by each school has not pleased the DSEJ head. Some local parents also complained that they did not have the time to teach their children at home.
Lou commented that online study platforms individually built by schools themselves have demonstrated widely varying degrees of effectiveness.
According to Lou, a specifically designed and managed platform is almost certainly the best solution to minimize the differences in results between educational institutions.
In a reference to the experience of Macau’s neighboring regions, the DSEJ’s centralized, or “unified” platform, as Lou called it, is believed to assist all schools to lecture “under the same conditions.”
As for Macau’s neighbors, the mainland Chinese government has designed and managed online studying platforms, whereas Hong Kong has not.
In mainland China, such study platforms are administered by the local education authority and schools mandatorily take part in it. The online teaching platforms allegedly aim at providing equal education opportunities for all, and the content prioritizes patriotic education.
The actual design of Macau’s online study platform is yet to be revealed. The DSEJ Director only claimed that his department will strive to provide more online study resources.
Currently, the bureau is preparing a public tender for the platform. Lou estimated that the platform will cost several million patacas.
The principal of Macao Sam Yuk Middle School, Simon You De Xu, has already endorsed the DSEJ project, having stated that online studying is the future trend.