President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said during a recent radio interview in Taichung that Taiwanese college and university students are not as competitive as they used to be.
This assertion is often made in the media, but when the accusation comes from the president, we need to look carefully and see whether it is based in truth.
A frequently cited example is the decline of Taiwanese students’ average Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores compared with students from other countries. Some take this as proof that Taiwanese students’ English proficiency is declining.
But is this the real cause of the lower scores?
Back in the days when the president and I were students, less than 20 percent of high school students moved on to college, and most of the best university students hoped to pursue advanced education abroad after graduation.
Most of those who took the TOEFL test in Taiwan, therefore, were students who performed well and who had relatively proficient English.
SHARP INCREASE
Over the past decade, however, the number of colleges and universities has sharply increased. At the same time, the number of top students who choose to study abroad has decreased as more of them choose to continue their education in Taiwan.
As a result, the English proficiency of those who take the TOEFL is now much closer to the proficiency of the average Taiwanese student.
Hence, it seems unfair to compare the average TOEFL score of past students, who were drawn from the top 20 percent of the high school population, with that of today’s broader-based student population and then claim that this demonstrates a decline in proficiency.
As society has evolved, ordinary families have placed more value on education. Universities are also evolving as schools pay greater attention to the quality of teaching.
In general, student proficiency has improved. The characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of different generations may vary, but in terms of academic training, the top students of this generation can be thought of as superior to those of previous generations. To compare the bulk of today’s students with their elite predecessors is not only unfair, but also misleading.
OPPORTUNITIES
These days people are under the impression that Taiwanese university students’ English proficiency is declining and that they can be admitted to college with extremely low scores. While there is some truth in this, it is a result of a marked increase in schooling opportunities, not a fall in the quality of higher education.
Providing more opportunities for students to go to college could be a good thing or a bad thing, and it is an issue that should be discussed. An increase in schooling opportunities, however, does not mean that schools do not take education seriously.
President Ma’s suggestion of improving students’ international understanding and overall competitiveness certainly has merit.
His suggestion that students and teachers work harder, however, is unfortunate, because even if it were to improve student proficiency by a slight degree, it would still fail to meaningfully address the problems in the education system.
Besides, such talk does nothing to stimulate the confidence and ambition of Taiwan’s next generation.
Chen Sinn-wen is dean of the Office of Student Affairs at National Tsing Hua University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
RSS