On Aug. 20, an official of the Ministry of Education announced that, starting in two years' time, English is to be taught from the first grade of primary school and the MOE has already permitted private schools to hire foreign English teachers.
The same news said that Ovid Tzeng (
Yet it stands in conflict with the enactment of a disputed Employment Law, which discriminates against the same foreign teachers we need to effect those educational goals. Indeed, the law has already been abused by some university administrators who now have the power to punish recusant colleagues. The fact is that although there is a Teachers Law which should be followed in the handling of all teacher hirings and dismissals, even foreign teachers who even hold a teacher certificate signed by the MOE do not enjoy the benefits of this law. Rather the Employment Law, a law drafted in the regulation of hiring foreign labors, is used.
This discriminatory selection of which law is applicable is equivalent to stripping our country's foreign teachers of their basic rights and dignities. According to a recent interpretation by the MOE, foreign teachers do not enjoy the same basic tenure rights as local teachers which are laid down in Article 14 of the Teachers Law. Legally they are second-class teachers.
Ordinarily, should a teaching or research institute, for example, a university or school, decides not to renew a teacher's contract, Article 24 of the Teachers Law states clearly the conditions on which such a decision must be based. Yet under the Employment Law, the rights of foreign teachers are entirely waived. The hiring institution can fire a foreign teacher (by not renewing his/her contact) without giving any reasons whatsoever. Should a teacher demand a proper reason, the teaching organization can fabricate any excuse for its action. Sometimes even libel and slander can be used to legitimate the reason for official purposes. The teaching organization can then notify the foreign affairs police within three days and have the foreign teacher repatriated, depriving him or her, practically speaking, of any right to appeal. If the teacher should appeal to the Ministry of Education, citing Article 14 of the Teachers Law, the ministry will rule that it does not protect foreign teachers, regardless how long they have taught in this country.
Readers will ask if the above scenario is merely theoretical. Actually there is a real instance happening right now and the MOE has done nothing to intervene in the situation.
One wonders if the minister of education and his staff sincerely believe that such a discriminatory policy will attract dedicated foreign language teachers to help in the country's language-teaching program. More probably, when the international academic community becomes fully informed of our discriminatory policies, Taiwan will be an international laughing stock.
I therefore plead with the country's highest authority handling education policy to eliminate current abuses against foreign teachers in our country. Thus foreign teachers properly hired by our teaching and research institutes will be treated equally and fairly. All foreign teachers should have the same tenure rights enjoyed by their Chinese colleagues, as stated in the Teachers Law. Otherwise our country's stated educational goals are merely empty talk.
Dahtong Ray
Associate Professor, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan, Taiwan
Nuclear plant no deterrence
I read the article titled "Learning lessons of nuclear energy" (Aug. 22, p8) by Mizuho Fukushima (
She says "once the nuclear power plants were installed, no other industry would dare to locate in the area." Shika (志賀) Nuclear Power Station has two units. Unit 1 started commercial operation on July 30, 1993. Unit 2 is under construction and is of the same type as Taiwan's Fourth Nuclear Plant (核四廠). The owner of the plant is Hokuriku (北陸) Electric Power Company. Noto Industrial Park (能登工業園區) is located only 2km from the nuclear power station.
Up to 1998, 23 companies had set up factories at this industrial park, among them, more than half of the factories were established after 1989 the year after construction on Unit 1 of the nuclear power plant started.
These facts plainly contradict the statement of legislator Fukushima. Nuclear power plants and industrial parks can be sited closely together . There is simply no evidence in this case, and therefore no reason to think that proximity to a nuclear plant deters development of a neighboring industrial park.
Liu Chen-chien
Taipei, Taiwan
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