Mainland’s Education Through Labor not applicable in Macau

Members of a Macau youth delegation are seen during a visit to the mainland’s Hunan Province earlier this year, where they and students of sister schools in Hunan put together puzzle pieces resembling the national flag

Last month, at the Legislative Assembly, lawmaker Lei Chan U proposed that Macau should implement mainland China’s Education Through Labor (ETL) approach.

ETL is a common approach in mainland China, which aims to bring every citizen to the realization that they should make contributions, most of which should be voluntary, to the development of socialism. In mainland China, ETL has a political agenda, aiming to instill a communist mindset into students from a young age.

It is highlighted that in Chinese socialism, working is viewed as an honorable obligation of every citizen. ETL in mainland China has been weakened in schools, according to Lei, softened in families, and faded in society, “which has fostered the idea of becoming rich overnight and gaining without working.”

Speaking to the Times, Sulu Sou, who is the youngest lawmaker at the Macau Legislative Assembly, remarked that mainland China’s ETL is “incompatible” with Macau’s society, especially because of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy. The incompatibility is based on Macau’s lack of a political, social and traditional background for the implementation of such an education campaign.

Sou suggests that even though ETL is not needed in Macau, a deeper comprehension of labor rights and labor protections among the city’s workers would nevertheless be beneficial

“Macau can still enhance the promotion of labor laws, respect workers’ values and care more about the protection of workers’ rights,” said Sou.

A trade union bill seeking to enhance worker protections in Macau has been defeated at least 10 times at the Legislative Assembly since the 1999 handover. Supporters of the bill stem from the democrat and worker factions of the legislature, while the pro-establishment and business interests are generally opposed to it.

Recently, several lawmakers have proposed to implement some of mainland China’s education campaigns in Macau, including Mak Soi Kun, who advocates civic education and the adoption of mainland history textbooks.

Speaking about Macau’s youth policies and mainland-oriented education propaganda, Sou hopes that Macau can provide its students with more diverse opinions to enrich their learning experience.

Believing that the propaganda aim of aligning Macau students with mainland China’s national strategy has already been achieved, Sou hopes that the city can invest more resources into attracting students to visit other places rather than just mainland China.

In Sou’s opinion, local students can still build independent thoughts even if they receive education in mainland China. Simultaneously, Sou acknowledged the difficulties in having few options within Macau’s government-organized activities.

“First, you only have mainland China to choose from. Second, you only have mainland government official activities to choose from,” Sou noted.

Educator Teresa Vong, who is an associate professor of education at the University of Macau, told the Times that Macau students indeed lack hands-on activities.

In Vong’s opinion, Macau families do not provide opportunities for children to do hands-on activities because families where both the mother and father are employed hire domestic helpers and that makes it “very difficult” for children to learn to take care of themselves.

Macau’s schools are also not offering students necessary hands-on activities, according to Vong.

The government can also do more to do develop the practical skills of young people in Macau. According to Vong, the Macau government’s cash handout program does not help to teach students about the importance of working. “In such an environment, students do not need to work hard,” said Vong.

Vong also proposed that Macau should organize more activities in kindergartens to train students’ hands-on ability and Macau’s school education should include more activities involving life skills.