Education bureau sees graduating students wary about overseas study

This year’s graduating students have shown greater reluctance to go abroad in pursuing further education, Kong Chi Meng, deputy director of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) has said on the sidelines of a public event.
Due to the pandemic, the education official said that this year’s graduating secondary school students who intend to continue pursuing their studies have mainly applied for higher education institutions located in Macau or mainland China.
Furthermore, the education bureau was also told by local secondary schools that graduating students this year, in contrast to those in previous years, have become more cautious in their considerations about whether to pursue further education overseas.
The most popular places for Macau’s secondary school graduates to consider studying outside of Macau include Taiwan, Australia, the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
For the time being, the epidemic conditions in these places are unstable, which is a concern for students and their parents when making decisions about where they should continue their studies.
Another factor is that air travel to certain places may not be as accessible as prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, Taiwan has blocked all transit passengers as a disease control measure.
The education regulator has also opened and been moderating a number of instant messenger groups. These groups aim at providing information to Macau students who are studying abroad or planning to do so.
At the same time, the education regulator has so far received indications from more than 800 students currently studying outside of Macau of their intent to return.
“We have 17 instant messenger groups in which we can gather information, suggestions and comments,” Kong announced. “For the time being, we can see that in the months of July, August and September, there are more than 800 students who would return to Macau.”
Most of these students, the education official said, managed to book their flight tickets through normal ticketing channels. He stressed that the education regulator would remain in constant communication with these students through the instant messenger groups.