| Education in Macau | ||
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Geography - History - Politics & Gov. Macau Portal |
Most of the schools in Macau are private or subsidized schools. There are only a few government or public schools, in which Portuguese is used as a medium of instruction or taken as a compulsory subject in Macau. A basic ten-year compulsory, free education, is offered to those students who have been enrolled in the schools which have met certain requirements stipulated by the government.
Moreover, the majority of the schools in Macau are so-called grammar schools, which offer language learning, mathematics, science subjects, social studies, etc. to the students. There are only a few vocational schools in Macau, offering technical subjects such as car repairing, electronics, electrical engineering, etc.
As prescribed by the Basic Law of Macau Chapter VI Article 121, the Government of Macau shall, on its own, formulate policies on education, including policies regarding the educational system and its administration, the language of instruction, the allocation of funds, the examination system, the recognition of educational qualifications and the system of academic awards so as to promote educational development. The government shall also in accordance with law, gradually institute a compulsory education system. Community organisations and individuals may, in accordance with law, run educational undertakings of various kinds.
| Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e Juventude | |
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| Director Subdirector Subdirector(SUBSTITUIÇÃO) |
Sou Chio Fai Sílvia Ribeiro Osório Ho Leong Lai |
| General Details | |
| Primary Languages | Chinese and English, Portuguese |
At present ,most schools in Macau follow a so-called ″local education system″ .That is , six years primary school education, three years for junior secondary school education, and three years for senior high school education up to Form 6. In their senior secondary school years, students are usually required to stream in science, commerce, or arts. Students who plan to study further would usually sit for the exam organized by the higher education institutes ,or international assessment bodies like Edexcel , CIE and College Board , or the related government bodies in mainland China and Taiwan.
Regarding language learning in Macau, Chinese and English are offered in most of the schools. Escola Portuguesa de Macau is currently the only school in Macao offering curricula similar to those of Portugal and a Portuguese-language education for students from one grade to 12th grade. However, Portuguese is also taught as a subject in some others schools. As Macau has become a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China in 1999, Mandarin or Putonghua is widely taught in most schools in Macau. Some other languages such as French may also be offered in a few schools.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial worldwide test of 15-year-old schoolchildren's scholastic performance, the implementation of which is coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA was first mooted in 1997 . Macau was being rated the 6th and 5th in the part of problem solving and science. The results of each period of assessment normally take at least a year to be analysed. The first results for PISA 2000 came out in 2001 (OECD, 2001a) and 2003 (OECD, 2003c), and were followed by thematic reports studying particular aspects of the results. The evaluation of PISA 2003 was published in two volumes: Learning for Tomorrow’s World: First Results from PISA 2003 (OECD, 2004) and Problem Solving for Tomorrow’s World – First Measures of Cross-Curricular Competencies from PISA 2003 (OECD, 2004d) Here is an overview of the six places with the highest scores in 2003 (the tables for maths and reading literacy excluded):
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The most recent PISA results from the 2006 survey were released in 2007. Macau is one of the top 10 performing countries or regions in the field of mathematics.
| Mathematics | |
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| 1. | Taiwan |
| 2. | Finland |
| 3. | Hong Kong |
| 4. | South Korea |
| 5. | Netherlands |
| 6. | Switzerland |
| 7. | Canada |
| 8. | Macau |
| 9. | Liechtenstein |
| 10. | Japan |
| ... | |
| The United States ranked 35th out of a total of 57 countries in the math survey |
Higher-learning institutions of Macau include:
There are more than ten higher-learning institutions in Macau. Some students choose to further their studies in the local universities or polytechnics whereas some others choose to further their studies in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, or some other places.
City University of Macau[1] In 1978, when the economy of South East Asia was in rapid growth and the Open Door Policy of China was initially confirmed, Dr. Peter Eng, Dr. Edward P. H. Woo and Dr. K. K. Wong, founders of the University, recognized the desirability of having an international university in Macau. They negotiated with the Macau Government for permission to set up an international university in the territory. Consent was promptly given and the first university in Macau, the University of East Asia commenced operation in September 1981. In February 1988, the University of East Asia was restructured to become a public university, renamed as University of Macau. Programs previously offered by the Open College and Graduate Collage of the University of East Asia were handled by a new East Asia Open Institute. To cope with the ever increasing and changing needs in the territory, the East Asia Open Institute entered into a joint venture with Universidade Aberta (Open University) of Portugal to form a new university - the Asia International Open University (Macau), with the approval of the Macau Government in 1992. Dr Hsueh Shou Sheng was appointed as the Founding Rector and the current Rector is Professor Yan Zexian. Over the past 28 years, thousands of students from Macau, Hong Kong, China and the Asia Pacific region had been attending courses offered by the University. Most of them graduated from the Master of Business Administration program and many of them are engaged in important positions in political, economic and commercial fields. The University consists of School of Undergraduate Studies, School of Graduate Studies, School of Professional Studies and School of Portuguese Studies, offering a variety of programs covering business administration, international law, Chinese literature, social science and computer science, etc. In accordance with the Macau Government Decree Law 196/92/M, the university was approved to award Bachelor, Master and Doctor degrees. The University is a member of the International Council for Educational Media (ICEM) and the Associacao das Universidades de Lingua Portuguese (AULP). The University has been actively organizing and participating in different international academic conferences. Seminars like the “Chinese Distance Learning Seminar”, “International Information Education Seminar”, “Investment Strategy Seminar”, “E-Government” and “Assessing Sovereign and Corporate Credit Risk in Greater China“ were hosted by the University in Macau. The University always maintains close cooperation with institutions of higher education in China. In 1993, the University established the East Asia International Institute in Shanghai offering a wide range of high level business studies programs that were highly valued by both the community and the authorities. In 1997, an agreement was signed with Shanghai Television University (the pioneer of distance learning in China) to establish a sister-institution relationship. At the same time, in response to the demand in Hong Kong and Macau on the knowledge of China trade and Chinese law, the University has launched various Diploma programs on Chinese law, China finance/ banking, China trade and China public administration to the community. Macau has been a unique meeting place between the Eastern and Western cultures from its earliest history and has been a gateway of the trade between China and Europe. It can be seen that the hand-over of Macau to China in December 1999 and the implementation of “One country, two systems” have brought significant impact to Macau and China, especially the ties between China and European Community. The University will endeavour to establish closer ties in the trade and cultural exchange amongst Macau, China and Europe. It will make full use of its close relations with higher education institutions in China and will continue to develop quality professional programs including business administration, public administration and international commercial law programs to be offered in Macau, Hong Kong and China. The University will continue to strive to strengthen academic programs and research and to provide lifelong learning opportunities to train and cultivate distinguished professionals in Macau, Hong Kong and China. The University has been renamed as City University of Macau since 2011.
Online application is now possible to make in the University of Macau [2] Gaming Management is a unique program newly offered under the umbrella of the faculty of business administration. Besides, there are many other traditional options for students to choose namely accounting, business information systems, economics and international finance, finance, international business, management, marketing. For English studies, teaching areas cover English literature, linguistics and translation, etc. For communication, it basically includes journalism, public relations, advertising, video production. Entrance examination is a must for the admission of undergraduate/graduate programs in the University of Macau and sometimes, personal interview may also be required. Candidates may check their results/marks of the entrance examination online although results will be sent to individual applicants by mail at the beginning of June. As quotas are set every year and competition is keen, one who meets the minimum score of entrance examination or other requirements of admission may NOT automatically be offered a place.
Macau Polytechnic Institute [3] Established on September 16, 1991, Macao Polytechnic Institute is a public and forward-looking institute, which was formerly a part of the University of East Asia, Macau. For just 10 years since its inception, the Institute has grown and prospered into a modern and fully equipped teaching and research facility with a team of experienced and dedicated academic staff. Macao Polytechnic Institute comprises several academic, training and research units. The academic units include: the School of Languages and Translation, School of Business, School of Public Administration, School of Arts, School of Physical Education and Sports and the School of Health Sciences. The training and research units include: the Senior Academy, MPI–Bell Centre of English (also an English Testing Centre which is the only provider of IELTS and BULATS certification in Macao), Macao Tourism and Casino Career Centre ( managed jointly by the Macao Polytechnic Institute and the Institute for Tourism Studies), Centre of Continuing Education and Special Projects, Social Economic and Public Policy Research Centre, the Centre of Sino-Western Culture Studies and MPI-QMUL Information Systems Research Centre.
Recently Macau University of Science and Technology [4] (MUST) together with colleges/universities from Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other countries signed agreements of co-operation that attempted to use the model of 2+2 or 3+1 in which students may get double degrees after graduation in Macau and abroad, but the Macau government ruled that students may not earn dual degrees.
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