Education | No more queues for first-time kindergarten applicants

Authorities have centralized individual application procedures for kindergartens, in a bid to address the issue of parents queuing around schools during application periods to secure classroom seats for their children.
From January 5 to 25 next year, applicants will be allowed to register on the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau’s website. All admission information will be available starting January 1.
During a media briefing yesterday over the new initiative for next year’s 5,900-odd prospective students, Kong Chi Meng, who heads the bureau’s division for pre-school and primary education affairs, urged the parents to stay calm throughout the four-month application process.
“All the applications can be made at anytime during the three-week period and it won’t make any difference,” the official stated, stressing that no priority will be given to early applications.
The central application system, said to be subject to a technological task force’s monitoring, allows applicants a maximum of six choices of schools.
The authorities also emphasized that the system would guarantee interview opportunities for applicants’ preferred schools, which do not have an upper limit.
“The measure this time will primarily save parents’ time on lining up and looking into schools,” Kong further clarified. “Yet the schools, as before, have the autonomy to admit students after interviews.”
Children must be at least three years old to apply. Non-local citizens’ children must possess a grant for a stay of more than 90 days in Macau in order to be eligible for the kindergarten application.
All the scheduled interviews will be conducted between February 26 and March 31.
Between April 1 and 14, applicants who completed the online applications and interviews will have to obtain their unique registration slip at any of the government’s self-service kiosks. In the meantime, the schools’ lists of admitted students will be made available in due course.
Unsuccessful applicants will have to continue their search after April 15, while standby candidates will also be notified of their final status around the same time.
Parents who are unfamiliar with the Internet can also register at one of the bureau’s four counters, with two in the region and the rest in Taipa.