A Comparative study on recent educational policy changes of primary and secondary schooling in Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong and Macau are two cities which share many common features. For example, both are located in south coast in China, colonies of European countries for more than a century, Special Administrative Regions (SARs) in China, small in area, etc. The main differences are obvious: Hong Kong is considerably larger in terms of population and land area, a key role in financial field, whereas Macau is a gambling-based economic and known as the 'Las Vegas' in the East. It has been about two decades since the reunification of both Hong Kong and Macau to China. The political, social and economic environments have been significantly changed. One main change is that China now becomes the world's second-largest economy and more influential in the policy making of two SARs. This paper attempts to explain the differences and similarities of educational policy changes of primary and secondary schooling in Hong Kong and Macau in recent years. Since the educational policies play an essential role in many social issues such as shaping national identity, social justice, etc, it is important to investigate how are they changed in recent year and understand the implications of such changes.