College entry is one aspect of the oft-criticized education reform policies. As a way for colleges to screen talent, the key issues surrounding college entry are how to implement it effectively and whether it will help achieve better results in education.
There are three kinds of obstacles standing in the way of college entrance reform, the first of which comes in the form of parents, teachers and students.
This is a group that is obsessed with prestigious schools and doesn't care about interests, qualifications and character. The Ministry of Education should take much of the responsibility for this obsession. If the ministry does not provide the nation with multiple college entrance systems and instead focuses on strengthening the reputation of top universities while urging all schools to brand themselves as multi-college or research universities, then multiple-entrance reforms will be unnecessary.
The ministry must allow universities to develop their own unique features and remain competitive. This is especially the case with colleges specializing in athletics, music and art. With hard work, they can all become highly refined and competitive prestigious schools -- schools with unique features, which many students are happy to choose and where they can fully develop their skills. However, a majority of these schools are facing severe personnel and financial shortages.
Another obstacle facing the multiple entrance system is the simple fact that it is easier to graduate from colleges than gain admission into them. Most students believe that most people who get into college will graduate without a hitch.
In the era of the unitary college entrance system, academic test scores were almost the only means by which a student could gain admission. After the multiple entrance system came into effect, several possibilities became available. However, if these alternative channels lose their objectivity, it will result in a great deal of unfairness. Students from poor families will lose their rightful opportunities because of the multiple entrance system.
A member of the DPP's Central Standing Committee allegedly told President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), "If not for the past joint-entrance exam, neither you nor I could have gained admission into National Taiwan University's law department." In light of this, the colleges and universities must change their "difficult to enter, but easy to graduate" nature and become easy to enter, but difficult to graduate.
Such a reversal may be difficult, but not impossible. For example, the universities must first get tough on rules for requiring students to retake tests and classes or to repeat a year and use objective quality control systems to assess students. Schools can then achieve the goal of making graduation difficult, while the ministry can conduct uniform national tests on final-year students and set standards for graduate quality. What we would end up with is a system that makes college entry easy, evaluation tests that would help achieve the goal of making graduation difficult and test scores that can be used to decide how much a university will get in government subsidies.
A problem that may take more time to remedy comes as part of the nation's cultural makeup. Society attaches more importance to diplomas than to real ability. It is a situation that also occurs in Japan.
At the Japanese Cabinet's economic and financial consultation meeting on June 11, Minister of Education Atsuko Toyama proposed the so-called "Toyama Project," to reform Japan's universities. It is an education reform policy aimed at encouraging economic revitalization and raising the country's competitiveness.
Taiwan's circumstances may not be identical to Japan's, but its ultimate goals are the same -- to raise the country's competitiveness, create a high-quality pluralistic society and help people obtain jobs that suit their skills. A multiple college entrance system is therefore an important foundation for cultivating talent in a pluralistic society.
Taiwan needs to abandon the bias of attaching more importance to diplomas than real ability. A multiple college entrance system will be hard to implement if this concept cannot be rectified. The reasoning is simple: Students will land a good job in the future if they can nudge their way into a prestigious school, regardless of whether they possess professional skills or basic competence.
Ten years ago, Japan's business circles were pointing out that talent cultivated by universities was not up to scratch and that college education merely provided a kind of IQ test for corporate recruitment. Companies could not place any trust in diplomas when it came to professional ability and future potential. Recruits still had to undergo strict employment exams and several years of training before they became usable.
For many years, Taiwan's higher education policies have been partial toward public universities, pushing prestigious universities like National Taiwan University to the top of the academic pyramid. Meanwhile, private and lesser-known college have lost their individualism and have become uncompetitive.
Minister of Education Huang Jung-tsun (黃榮村) has worked very hard to promote the government's current educational reform policies and much of the flak has been directed at him. I believe this is unfair. Educational reforms cannot be implemented if society cannot do away with the obstacles facing them.
We want to "reform the uni-versities and reform Taiwan" to cultivate people with professional ability and love for their homeland who will devote themselves to building a more democratic, free and pluralistic society.
Chen Chuan-shou is president of National Taiwan College of Physical Education.
Translated by Francis Huang
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