Sulu Sou urges suspension of mainland teachers’ exchange program

Lawmaker Sulu Sou has urged the local government to suspend the “Outstanding Teachers from Mainland China to Macau for Exchange,” noting that mainland teachers are not familiar with Macau’s educational culture, institution and environment.
On Friday, and on the sidelines of a meeting of the Third Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly, Sulu Sou made these calls upon the government.
Sou’s declaration is a follow-up response to the government’s recent decision to hire 27 mainland teachers under individual service contracts spanning from October 20 of this year to August 31 next year.
The scheme was rolled out in the 2008/09 academic year, with the support of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.
Despite having implemented this program for more than a decade, the government’s recently announced recruitment of the 27 teachers immediately stirred controversy among the local community.
In response to this year’s exchange program, the directly elected lawmaker made seven proposals to the government, including temporarily suspending the exchange.
Sou argued that “not a few” local teachers have expressed that these mainland teachers do not understand Cantonese, nor Macau’s educational culture, institution and environment.
“How can [those teachers] meet the students’ needs when they don’t know Cantonese?” Sou questioned.
Sou indicated that teachers’ exchange program should not only include mainland teachers, and that there are excellent teachers from other regions and countries.
In addition, Sou accused the local government of hiring some of the exchanging mainland teachers to work for the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau. He stressed that this practice goes against the purpose of Macau’s individual employment contract design. Moreover, some of the exchanging teachers were able to stay in Macau as blue-card teachers, thus taking away opportunities for local teachers. JZ