Education in Macau

Infobox Education
country name = Macau, China
agency

agency = Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e Juventude
leader titles = Director
Subdirector
Subdirector(SUBSTITUIÇÃO)
leader names = Sou Chio Fai
Sílvia Ribeiro Osório Ho
Leong Lai
primary languages = Chinese and English, Portuguese

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.

ystems of Education

Macau does not have its own universal education system for the time being. In this way, schools in Macau follow different educational systems that reflect their goals and visions. In general, there are three types of educational systems, namely, the Chinese educational system, the English educational system, and the Portuguese educational system.

Chinese education system

In those schools adopting the Chinese educational system, students attend six years of schooling for their primary school education, up to primary 6, three years for junior secondary school education, and two years for senior high school education up to Form 5, and some schools up to Form 6. In their senior secondary school years, students are required to stream in science, commerce, or arts.

English education system

In those schools adopting the English educational system, students attend six years of schooling for their primary school education, three years for junior secondary school education, two years for senior secondary school education, and one to two years for their matriculation. Students in their senior secondary school years are required to stream in science, commerce, or arts. Furthermore, after the completion of their secondary school education, students are required to sit for the General Certificate of Education (GCE) directed by different educational boards, such as the Edexcel and the CIE.

Portuguese education system

In those schools adopting the Portuguese educational system, students attend four years for their basic education, five years for their junior secondary school education, and three years for their senior school education. Portuguese is used as a medium of instruction for most of the subjects. In recent years, English learning has been put into more focus. Moreover, with the return of Macau to China, the Portuguese schools, which originally followed strictly the curricula of the Portuguese educational system, plans to reform their curricula and incorporate Mandarin learning as a compulsory subject into their curricula.

In recent years, the Macau government has made an attempt to unify the educational system. In other words, it plans to standardize the number of years attended by students from different educational systems. However, such an attempt has not been well accepted by the educational circles, especially those from the schools that follow the English system.

Mediums of Instruction

Regarding language learning in Macau, Chinese and English are offered in most of the schools. Portuguese is also taught as a subject in some schools in Macau. 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.

Result of PISA

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial world-wide 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"):

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.

Higher Education

Main higher-learning institutions include:
* University of Macau
* Polytechnic Institute of Macau
* Macau University of Science and Technology
* Macau Inter-University Institute

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 China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, or some other places.

University of Macau

Online application is now possible to make in the University of Macau [http://www.umac.mo/]
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

Macau Polytechnic Institute [http://www.ipm.edu.mo/] 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.

Macau University of Science and Technology

Recently Macau University of Science and Technology [http://www.must.edu.mo/0000E.jsp] (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.Fact|date=June 2007

ee also

* Education in the People's Republic of China
* Education by country
* UNU-IIST
* Macau Inter-University Institute