Macau middle schools want more ‘love for the country’

Leong Heng Teng, ExCo

The Macau SAR government is suggesting that Macau’s middle school students need a broader and deeper education to develop their sense of responsibility and love towards the country.
On Friday, the Executive Council (ExCo) reported the completion of discussions on Macau’s education framework regulation amendment. The amendment suggests that the Macau SAR government should enhance history, geography, visual art, and music education towards local middle school students.
According to Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) Director Lou Pak Sang, the subjects of history, geography, visual art, and music are currently integrated into two subjects, namely “society and humanity” and “art”.
In total, society and humanity and art must be instructed for more than 12,360 minutes. Once subjects become independent, schools should spend more than 5,440 and 6,920 minutes on geography and history respectively. These two subjects will take the same amount of time to be lectured as their current integrated counterpart.
When asked by the media why the city’s middle school students need more education on their love and responsibility to the country, neither ExCo spokesperson Leong Heng Teng nor the DSEJ Director answered the question. Instead, they explained that Macau’s education framework contains such a requirement.
The regulation is expected to be implemented in 2020/2021.
Currently, a total of 15 schools have not set up these subjects separately. Twelve schools expressed their willingness to enact the change, stating that in the upcoming school year they will have begun teaching these subjects separately.
The three other schools, which are foreign language schools, also expressed their willingness to cooperate in spite of difficulties concerning the number of teachers.
According to the city’s high school subjects’ regulation of 2017, it is clearly stated that economy, law, politics, history, geography, society, culture and philosophy are to be included in the humanity subject.
However, just one year later, in 2018, the high school subjects’ regulations were amended to suggest deleting philosophy, society, law and economy from basic knowledge requirements.
The ExCo also completed a discussion on the regulation concerning subsidies to allow Macau residents to have medical insurance in Zhuhai.
The subsidies program was announced earlier last June, together with the announcement of the medical insurance program for Macau residents who live in Hengqin. As previously reported, the Macau local government will use public money to subsidize Macau residents who live in Zhuhai by paying 410 patacas to the insurance account of qualified Macau residents who join Zhuhai’s medical insurance.