MACAO, March 9(Xinhuanet)-- The education authority in China's Macao Special Administrative Region(SAR) has found that 624 students left school to pursue high-paid jobs in casinos last year.

Macao Post Wednesday quoted Sou Chio Fai, director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau as saying that the number signified the most serious school dropout phenomenon in the past seven years.

In the 2003-2004 school term, Macao has 98,255 students on campus. The bureau's investigation found that a total of 4,908 students left school in that term, and some 80 percent of them were aged 16 or over. Nearly half of the school dropouts have found jobs in the gaming or catering sectors.

Sou said that the bureau would do its best to persuade studentsto complete their school education before entering the job market.

There are currently 17 casinos in Macao, and more are under construction, which would offer thousands of jobs in the next two years. Students are wooed by the fast-earning jobs in the sector.

The gaming industry has existed in Macao for over 100 years. The industry has sustained its vigor after Macao returned to Chinain 1999, which has been guaranteed by the principle of"one country, two systems." As the only place in China, where gambling is legal, Macao liberalized the sector for overseas investment in 2002, and designated it as the city's economic backbone.