Education sector to hold more events for PRC and handover anniversaries

The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) said that more events will be held in 2019 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Macau handover and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of People’s Republic of China.

The International Youth Dance Festival, which is supposed to be held every two years, will be held once again this year following its previous edition in 2018.

In addition, an International Youth Music Festival and an International Youth Drama Festival will be held this year prior to the students’ summer vacation.

This year, all the city’s schools will participate in a gala for a special celebration of the anniversaries.

Besides these traditions, which were already practiced in Macau, the DSEJ will try to get more mainland national events to be held in Macau this year.

These mainland events include the China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest, and the Huaxia Teachers’ Gala.

On May 4, the DSEJ will invite youths from the Greater Bay Area to participate in events amid the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement.

For the first time, a local flag-guards team will be formed by local students. This flag-guards student team will be used in Macau’s big events. 

During a press conference yesterday, DSEJ director Lou Pak Sang said that the city hired a total of approximately 40 therapists from other regions, including speech therapists, to provide services to local children with early development problems. 

The recruitment of these non-local therapists will shorten kids’ waiting time for treatment in approximately one month. In 2017, each kid waited, on average, between 15 and 18 months until they received treatment.

According to Lou, the biggest shortage concerns speech therapists. All speech therapists were hired from Hong Kong, in addition to some trainers from Taiwan who provide speech therapy training to other professionals. 

When providing updates concerning the law on special education, Lou noted that the law has already entered legislative procedures.

As reported by Lou, since the beginning of the 2018/2019 academic year, two sexual abuse cases were reported from local schools.

In the academic years of 2017/2018, 2016/2017, and 2015/2016, a total of seven, three and 14 sexual abuse cases were reported, respectively.

The DSEJ director claims that the education bureau will enhance sexual education training of both the schools and the parents.