The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) plans to strengthen is provision of vocational education, according to the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture.
Answering a question from legislator Chui Sai Cheong on Friday, Alexis Tam said, “[the school project] at Seac Pai Vai will include a center for vocational education courses.” He added that the center will provide lecture courses in the areas of “translation, fashion design and other creative industries.”
Mr Chui had questioned the secretary over the need to invest more in this field. According to the lawmaker, courses in the creative industries account for 50 percent of students in countries such as Germany, and generates high incomes for industry professionals working in European countries as well as in the US. Chui Sai Cheong also underlined that there is a need for the government to seek to change societal attitudes toward this type of education. In order to accomplish this, he proposed a sensitization campaign to show people that a “University degree is not the only way.”
Details about the operation of this school center were not offered at this time.
Also on the subject of education, and following the concerns of another legislator over the need for the Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES) to be upgraded to a bureau, the secretary said that “although [GAES] is labeled an ‘office,’ the competences of GAES are equivalent to a Bureau.” In addition, he guaranteed that the Office will not be put under the auspices of the DSEJ. “I can guarantee that DSEJ will not merge with GAES. They have very different domains. In fact, GAES will be given more powers, for example, being able to make regulations that would be applied to the tertiary education institutions,” Mr Tam said.
The teaching of the Portuguese language was a topic that was raised on both days of the debate, especially in regard to the University of Macau (UM). Lawmaker Leonel Alves, in a straightforward manner, said that it “looks like there is a lack of alignment between the theory and the practice, between the political program and the actions. There is a need to moralize the leaders and the structures,” he added, referring to the apparent non-compliance from UM, with the strategy of developing the teaching of the Portuguese language. The legislator added, “IPM has been doing a great job, maybe because its rector is bilingual.”
The lawmaker went even further, saying, “Maybe we need to have a special school just to teach languages: a language school.” RM
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