Lawmaker Song unhappy with the quality of Macau teachers

Song Pek Kei

Lawmaker Song Pek Kei is unhappy with the quality of local teaching staff, which she says is also unbalanced with too many teachers in non-tertiary education and too few in the tertiary education level.

Song claimed the government, over the last few years, has invested a significant amount in the improvement of school facilities but not in teaching staff.

“According to data from the 2023-2024 academic year, 46 teachers have a doctorate (representing 0.5%), 1,562 have a master’s degree, 14 have a postgraduate degree (representing 19.9%), 6,084 have a bachelor’s degree (representing 77.1%), and 175 do not have a degree (representing 2.2%). The number of teachers with master’s and doctorate degrees did not increase much compared to the 2016-2017 academic year,” said the lawmaker.

“Since teaching staff can directly affect the quality of teaching, what measures does the government have in place to encourage teachers to attend in-service training courses? It will take experiences from abroad as a reference and support schools in creating a paid leave regime for training to improve the quality of the teaching staff and [consequently] of the teaching?” Song questioned.

In response, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, said that since the 2020-2021 academic year, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEDJ), with the support of China’s Ministry of Education, has launched 900 training sessions for teachers with 35,000 slots for different education levels.

She added that additionally, all teachers can participate, by their initiative, in updating courses and training sessions which are included in their training hours, which she claims has been happening with most teachers.

Ao Ieong also said that DSEDJ has a sabbatical leave subsidy dedicated to the knowledge update and recycling which supports financially those who decide to suspend teaching to take part in these programs.

Addressing the fact of the high number of teachers in non-tertiary education, the Secretary noted that this is a consequence of the low birthrate of Macau and that DSEDJ is adjusting the situation among different schools, according to the size and target market.

Lawmaker Song wanted the government to solve an alleged problem with children of residents who are not residents and whom she claimed are unable to study in Macau.  Ao Ieong denied that this was a legitimate issue, claiming that all children of those holders of permits to stay with a duration of over 90 days are entitled to study in Macau schools.

To the call for a special permit to allow non-resident students of non-tertiary level to be able to come to Macau to study, Ao Ieong said that the topic requires a social consensus to be reached. Song disagreed stating “The social consensus depends on the government.”

As for tertiary education, the Secretary added that current government policies allow and facilitate the hiring of both local and non-local teachers for the local universities “in areas in which locals are rare.” She also claimed that this applies to both public and  private institutions.