People with criminal records who have since been cleared will be allowed to work in private tutorial centres in future, except for those with drug or sexual assault convictions.
Directly-elected lawmaker-cum-unionist Ella Lei Cheng I, who chairs the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) 1st Standing Committee, which is currently reviewing a government-initiated bill regulating local private tutorial centres, said that people who had committed a premeditated crime would also be disbarred.
Lei said that the previous version of the bill proposed that people employed by tutorial centres must not have been convicted of drug offences, sexual assault, domestic violence, crimes against life, or have been sentenced to more than three years’ imprisonment for other offences, even if their criminal records had meanwhile been cleared.
According to Lei, the revision aims to promote criminals’ social rehabilitation, and help them fully reintegrate into civil society.
Lei said the revised bill proposes that long-term restrictions on private tutorial centres’ employment conditions are only meant for those who committed drug or sexual offences, as both are considered to be particularly serious.
The bill also proposes that private tutorial centres can only operate in commercial buildings. It is slated to come into force on 1 April next year, but there are transitional provisions so that tuition centres already in existence can continue to operate, even if the premises where they are located are used for non-commercial purposes, The Macau Post Daily reported.
