From Charity to Philanthropy: Study on Association-Running Schools in Non-Tertiary Education Fields in Macau

Macau was under colonial rule by Portugal for a long time. Due to the colonial government’s lack of attention paid to education and Macau's unique dual social structure, the Chinese community in Macau gradually formed the phenomenon of providing education by associations. This paper focuses on the phenomenon of non-tertiary education association-running schools in Macau and divides the history of association-running schools in non-tertiary education in Macau for more than 100 years into three stages, namely: the period of charitable schools (1890s-1960s); the period of transformation (1960s-1980s); the period of philanthropic Schools (1980s-); This paper argues that with the development of economy and society, the non-tertiary education community in Macau has realized the transformation from charity to philanthropy. At the same time, With the implementation of 15-year free education in Macau, the structure of non-tertiary education subjects has become stable. For associations trying to enter the field of non-tertiary education, the likely direction is to develop special education, professional education, and characteristics education.