"The focus on developing humanities and giving priority to education" is a valuable experience summed up by the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) since it was founded five years ago.

Macao's Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah has listed the "start-up of the educational reform" into one of his key concerns of the government administration in 2005 in order to promote the overall development of Macao's citizens.

On Dec. 20, 1999, when Macao returned to the motherland, the first application the SAR government received, was to set up the Macao University of Science and Technology. The chief executive attached great importance to it and personally invited Zhou Ligao, president of the University of Macao, to take charge of the university, which was officially founded three months later.After the founding of the Macao Millennium College in 2001, Macao with a population of 450,000 had 12 higher-learning institutions.

While boosting higher education, Macao also concentrates on elementary and vocational education.

Sou Chio Fai, director of the Bureau of Education and Youth of the Macao SAR, said in an interview with Xinhua that Macao's education develops alongside its economic growth.

The Macao SAR government has appropriated more funds to education, increased educational subsidies, built and rebuilt school facilities, encouraged original teaching and cooperation between parents and schools, and promoted lifetime education.

At present, the number of students in Macao accounts for more than 20 percent of its total population. Macao's education is characterized by "putting people first." In his Policy Address delivered in November, the chief executive said, "To serve students is the guideline of the educational reform."

According to Sou, his bureau has made close cooperation with all schools in improving the quality of education while paying attention to cultivating the overall development of students and training them physically, artistically and technically. The bureau has launched a six-year plan to publicize art in middle schools by inviting art troupes from different parts of the world to Macao to give special performances to students.

Sou noted that the SAR government shows special interest in popularizing the lifelong education which features the accomplishment in self-cultivation by way of ikebana, painting and calligraphy, music, and family education aiming at cultivating human relations.

"Such education can not only train a large number of technical personnel and social leaders but also help maintain social stability," he said.

To love the motherland and Macao and to popularize mandarin is part of the educational work of Macao, which has stressed the education of the "one country, two systems" policy and the "Basic Law" in primary and middle schools.

"In view of the past, overall development, humanities and loving the motherland and Macao have become key points in the educational development of the Macao SAR," Sou said. The bureau will further devote itself to this great work. 

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2004)