Virtual School Across Hong Kong, Macau and the Mainland: Which Framework Applies to You

By Brendaliz Chelangat, Head of Academics · August 2026 · 8 min read

Families in the Greater Bay area ask us a version of the same question constantly, and it deserves a careful answer rather than a quick one. Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China are three separate education systems, and which governs a household is decided by legal residence rather than by where a parent works, where a business is registered or which boundary the family crosses each week. This article sets out all three.

Hong Kong: served in the ordinary way

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has its own education system, curriculum and regulator. Families resident there are served exactly as they would be in any of our other markets — live Cambridge, Edexcel, IB or AP subject teaching alongside a school enrolment, or as a complete interim programme for a family on a waiting list. We are not a registered Hong Kong school, issue no Hong Kong qualification, and do not teach toward the HKDSE. On home education specifically we could not verify a settled framework and will not guess, so a family whose plan depends on educating outside a registered school should take advice on their own position first.

Macau: the same, at a smaller scale

Macau is likewise a Special Administrative Region with its own education system, running Portuguese-heritage, local and a small number of international schools alongside an integrated resort economy that recruits internationally. The international sector is small relative to that workforce, and Hong Kong is an hour away by ferry and full. Cambridge Portuguese alongside the English-medium core matters here more than in most markets, and evening classes suit a hospitality household better than an after-school block would.

The mainland: what we will not do

Mainland China is a different matter and we set it out at length on our Shanghai page and in our China legal section. In short: the Double Reduction policy of July 2021 bans all forms of for-profit tutoring in academic subjects for students receiving compulsory education, places a strict ban on foreign teachers physically based outside China teaching students in China, and prohibits institutions from using foreign curricula. Smartious is for-profit, our teachers are outside China, and Cambridge is a foreign curriculum. We therefore do not enrol compulsory-education-age students resident in mainland China for subject teaching, and we will not suggest the position is more comfortable than it is.

Why residence rather than anything else

This is the practical point families most often get wrong. A parent commuting daily from Shenzhen to an office in Hong Kong is not thereby a Hong Kong household for education purposes; nor is a family with a Hong Kong business but a mainland home. The question is where the child legally resides, and it is a question for a family’s own advisers rather than for us — we would not attempt to answer it, and any provider who does so casually is doing a family no favours.

What we can help with either way

One thing that applies across all three: continuity for a family that moves. Technology, finance and manufacturing careers relocate, and a household leaving the Greater Bay area for Singapore, the Gulf, the United Kingdom or elsewhere can set up a single pathway that continues unchanged — same curriculum, same teachers, same examination board, with examinations sat at authorised provision wherever they land. For families planning a move out of the mainland, that is genuine and uncomplicated help, and we are glad to discuss it well ahead of a departure.

Three systems, one question that decides which applies, and one answer we give the same way to everyone who asks. Book an assessment for your child in Hong Kong or Macau, or read our mainland pages first.

Frequently asked questions

We live in Shenzhen and work in Hong Kong — which framework applies?

Your place of legal residence rather than where you work or cross to. That is a question for your own advisers before you enquire, and we would not answer it for you.

Does being at a mainland international school change the position?

Mainland international schools operate under their own enrolment rules, which is a separate question from whether an overseas for-profit provider may teach a child subject content. Conflating the two would not help anyone.

We are leaving China next year — can you help?

Yes, and that is one of the situations we can genuinely assist with. A single pathway can be set up to continue unchanged wherever the family goes next.

What time are classes in Hong Kong and Macau?

Evening. Both run UTC+8, five hours ahead of our teaching base, so a seven o’clock class is two in the afternoon for our teachers.

Next steps

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