The government is planning to merge the current 10 public schools into eight in the 2022/23 school year.
Five of the schools will become what are known as “through trains”, each running kindergarten, primary and secondary classes.
Wong Ka Ki, who heads the Non-Tertiary Education Department of the Education and Youth Development Bureau, made the announcement following a closed-door joint meeting of the Non-Tertiary Education Committee, the Higher Education Committee, and the Youth Affairs Committee.
Macao’s 77 schools are mostly private, with only 10 run by the government.
According to the bureau, currently only two of the 10 public schools are “through-trains”, namely Seac Pai Van Public School (石排灣公立學校) in Coloane and Zheng Guanying Public School (鄭觀應公立學校) in Toi San.
The other public schools comprise those only running secondary school classes, those only running kindergarten and primary classes, and a kindergarten – “Girassol” (“Sunflower”) Luso-Chinese Kindergarten (樂富中葡幼稚園).
In Cantonese jargon, “through-train” schools are also known as “one-dragon” schools.
Wong said that his bureau was planning to merge the current 10 public schools into five “one-dragon” schools, two primary schools that also run kindergarten classes, and a kindergarten. Wong said that his bureau expected the merger to be complete by the start of the 2022/23 school year.
Wong said, the two primary schools and the kindergarten will only continue to run for “a period of time” from the next school year, which means that the city’s public education sector will finally have only five public “through-train” schools.
In related news, when asked how the government planned to tackle the exodus of foreign teachers from international schools and the private Portuguese School, Wong merely said that the government had to prioritise its Covid-19 prevention work when considering whether to exempt foreign nationals from its entry ban. He said that the government was in the process of recruiting foreign teachers currently staying in the mainland.
Non-resident foreigners who have stayed in the mainland or Hong Kong for at least 21 days prior to their intended entry into Macao can apply for exemptions from the government’s entry ban for certain important reasons.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, non-resident foreigners have, in general, been barred from entering Macao since March last year, The Macau Post Daily reported.
