Macao's new round of educational reform has been aimed to lower the age of receiving compulsory education to three years old so as to prolong the period from 10 to 12 years, said an official here Sunday.
So Chio Fai, director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, said that this reform plan which is still in the boardroom would bring infancy education into the government-financed compulsory education to reduce parents' burden on their children's education.
Based on the reform, Macao students will also be required to have the basic language competence of Mandarin (standard Chinese) and at least one foreign tongue.
The current compulsory education system which has been in effect for 12 years stipulates that children of the age between five to 15 years should receive compulsory education.
(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2003)
