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Education reforms exacerbate class divide

` It's ... easier for schools to select students with better social and economic background.'

The results of this year's college entrance examinations were announced on Aug. 9. Although the average college enrollment is as high as 83.22 percent, more than half of the over 87,000 freshmen are forced to go to private schools. Apart from worrying about the high tuition fees every semester, their lives may also become very different.

The current system is classist. The same college-entrance examinations lead students into two worlds -- prestigious public schools versus expensive private ones.

This time, almost half of the 1,459 graduates from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo Senior High School were admitted to National Taiwan University (NTU). Among these graduates, as many as 43 were admitted to the popular department of computer science and information engineering, which recruited 78 students this year. Compare that success rate to that of a high school in eastern Taiwan, which admitted two students.

In March, the Business Weekly (商業周刊) reported in an article -- entitled One Taiwan, Two Worlds -- saying that the probability for senior high graduates in Taipei to be admitted to NTU is 16 times higher than the probability for those in the eastern county of Taitung.

Viewed from the perspective of social justice, the diversity of university admission is a very important concept, which means that all students from each race or social class have a chance to obtain the same level of higher education. This also has the function of promoting social mobility, apart from diversifying cultural impact on campuses. As for the government-funded public universities, they are especially responsible for providing more opportunities to students who come from different classes.

Unfortunately, due to the Ministry of Education's de-standardization of both elementary and junior-high textbooks, as well as the Diversified Enrollment Scheme, students in rural areas are at a disadvantage in this competition at present. It's also much easier for schools to select students with better social and economic backgrounds. The government's poor implementation of these policies has further worsened the problem.

On July 10, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) commented that "tuition fees have never blocked social class mobility." But his comment stands only on the premise that children from those financially-disadvantaged families can be admitted to and afford to attend public universities.

It seemed much easier for them to do so in the past. But it's much harder now under the Diversified Enrollment Scheme, because poor students can hardly afford to go to various talent schools, English cram schools, or even study abroad. More importantly, since their parents are so busy making a living, they have no time to push their children to study. How can their kids catch up with other students under such circumstances?

How can we reverse this? How can we provide more opportunities to children from financially-disadvantaged households? These are the most important issues that deserve education reformers' full attention.

Chang Ruay-shiung is the dean of academic affairs at National Dong Hwa University.

TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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