The Portuguese government has reached out to the head of the Macau Portuguese School (known by its Portuguese initials EPM), after several teachers were dismissed last week, the Lusa news agency reports.
“The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation is monitoring the situation and has requested clarification from the director of the Portuguese School of Macau,” minister Fernando Alexandre told Lusa.
Officials from Macao’s Education and Youth Development Bureau also visited the school last Thursday.
At least six teachers are not having their contracts renewed, Lusa says, for what the school describes as management reasons. Three of them are reportedly from the Portuguese language department, and include Alexandra Domingues, who has taught at the school for 33 years – virtually since its inception.
[See more: Children in Macao are in ‘urgent’ need of Portuguese-language speech therapists]
A petition calling for her reinstatement has so far garnered almost 1,000 signatures. The authors of the petition praised Domingues’ “remarkable professional and personal qualities” and said that she had dedicated herself “body and soul” to her students.
Another teacher, who asked not to be named, told Lusa that “we cannot understand” why the school would dismiss teachers who were experienced in teaching Portuguese to pupils whose first language was Chinese.
Rita Santos, president of the regional council of the Portuguese Communities for Asia and Oceania, posted on social media that “most students” of EPM “do not have Portuguese as a mother tongue” and urged that “experienced teachers like these be kept.”
Lusa said that EPM’s director, Acácio de Brito, had responded to queries via email stating that “situations where new teachers come and go” were an annual occurrence. He reportedly told TDM that 10 new teachers had been hired for the next academic year.
