The author points out that Hong Kong and Macau share some commonalties: they are geographically close, and share a common cultural heritage; both of them have scheduled for reintegration with the People's Republic of China. In contrast, the author underscores, the education system of Hong Kong is in most aspects centralized, while in Macau is decentralized. The author then tries to account for the differences and in turn comments on the implications with a focus on patterns of curriculum development for secondary schools.