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Importance of cram schools' role overlooked

Soon after the Education Reconstruction Front submitted a 10,000-word petition, the Ministry of Education announced that it will allow the nation's 2,600 or so elementary schools to launch after-school programs this fall. The timing of this announcement was abrupt.

In response to the petition's call for the government to "review the decade-long education reform and terminate the chaos of reform," the ministry scheduled a national education-development conference for next month. But it suddenly announced this major policy without thorough planning.

Due to its rough methods, the ministry may suffer again -- as it did in the cases of the Nine-Year Education Program or the Diversified Enrollment Scheme -- because the excessively idealistic ministry has ignored the realities of society and lacks appropriate complementary measures.

Supplementary-education businesses have been seriously affected by the chaos of reform. Operators have found it difficult to stay in businesses because of the government's ignorance and society's defamation of the industry. The number of legal cram schools has increased about 5.8 times over the past 10 years. But the number of students who attend these schools has decreased almost 30 percent, while the number of elementary-school graduates per year has decreased almost 20 percent.

In addition, in the face of the economic downturn, the average annual income has shrunk to the level of seven years ago. This has forced cram schools to reduce their fees. Unfortunately, pressured by the Peng Wan-ru Foundation, not only has the ministry failed to manage cram schools, but it has allowed students to take extra classes at their schools. The ministry is to be blamed if cram schools are forced to close down.

Some women's groups have recently demanded the government return "options for education" to them. But these groups are in fact helping the foundation to monopolize the market for after-school business. Many of those women's group representatives also serve on the Cabi-net's Commission on Women's Rights Promotion (婦女權益促進委員會) and as foundation directors. They are both players and judges at the same time -- thereby damaging social justice.

I propose four solutions:

First, the law states that all after-school affairs must be supervised by social-welfare agencies and can only be provided by qualified child-care givers. The law requires all child-care givers have to taken a 540-hour training program. The government should not reduce the length of the program to 102 hours.

Second, the ministry should postpone its after-school policy since necessary complementary measures are lacking. After next month's conference, education experts and authorities, as well as our teachers and parents, are likely to reach a consensus on various issues related to primary education -- such as the application of "constructive mathe-matics," the de-standardization of both elementary and junior-high textbooks and the integration of different education systems. The ministry should start to promote the new after-school policy at that time.

Third, the ministry should acknowledge the supplementary education operators' contributions to the "informal education system." It should also classify them as a "supplementary education industry" and help them to transform and upgrade.

Finally, the ministry should carefully stipulate related regulations. Once the programs are launched, the ministry should examine the implementation of these programs thoroughly. It should uphold the principle of "separation of regular and supplementary education" and therefore maintain social justice.

William Hsieh is the chief executive officer of the Taiwan Supplementary Education Association. TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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