The two-day National Conference on Educational Development saw truly dramatic discussion on the 12-year compulsory education program.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Unfortunately, academics attending the first day of the conference did not pay attention to this core issue and focused their criticism on the 12-year compulsory education program, which in fact could serve as a fundamental solution to the academic pressure.
The opposition forced the Ministry of Education to announce at the end of the first day that there would be no set date for the implementation of the program. Parents' groups followed the announcement by protests so the ministry concluded on the second day that it would "continue to plan" the 12-year compulsory education program.
Ten years ago, one of the main topics at the 7th National Conference on Educational Development was to relieve the pressure imposed on students by entrance exams. Since then, the educational environment has changed a lot. The National Teachers' Association was established, the textbook market was liberalized and multiple ways of getting into senior-high schools and universities were put into practice.
Many people have become interested during the educational reform process. A lot of new vocational and technology schools were set up to provide students with more educational opportunities.
However, such measures have not alleviated the heavy academic pressure on students. We saw teachers beg on their knees for their underperforming students, while elderly people worry about their grandchildren being unable to get into a senior-high school.
Where is the school admission pressure?
In June 2001, the number of junior-high graduates was 300,000, while the number of senior-high freshmen was 118,000. That means the senior-high admission rate was less than 40 percent. The 91,000 freshmen in four-year universities constituted 24 percent of the number of 18-year-olds in the country, 373,000. Such low admission rates force students to attend cram schools even before they start junior high.
So it is absolutely ridiculous to say that senior-high schools combined with vocational schools are more than enough to accommodate all the junior-high graduates. After all, students should be allowed to make their own decisions. If they prefer to study in senior-high schools, they should not be criticized for not choosing the vocational education track.
The past 10 years of educational reform tells us that changing the screening processes of senior-highs and universities cannot alleviate the pressure on students. And increasing the number of vocational schools does not answer the public's needs.
It would be easy to answer questions such as: why are there problems about the policy of developing a variety of textbooks based on the same guidelines? Because it has a lot to do with the context of the entrance exams. Why do we have problems about the diversified enrollment scheme? Because everyone aims at the most advantageous scheme.
These problems should be enough to let us know that today's education may further deteriorate if we don't set the issue of fierce academic competition straight before we discuss curriculum reforms, university categorization or making kindergartens part of the compulsory education program.
According to newspaper reports, industry representatives oppose the idea of abolishing vocational schools because they don't want to pay more to hire university graduates or postgraduates. Ironically, if the government does not abolish vocational schools and set up more senior-high schools, those who will suffer from the fierce academic competition won't be the children of those rich industry representatives but students who cannot afford to go abroad.
The pressure of fierce academic competition triggered the demand for educational reform 10 years ago. Now the same issue should be dealt with as a priority. People oppose the 12-year compulsory-education program for a variety of reasons, in view of the drain on the nation's finances, the feasibility of entrance-exam-free and tuition-free senior highs and the future of vocational schools.
We only need one reason, however, to support a 12-year compulsory education. That reason is that junior-high students would be able to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and a balanced curriculum. This is the perspective from which we should plan the 12-year compulsory program.
Lin Wen-ying is chair of the department of psychology at Fo-Guang University.
Translated by Jennie Shih
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