“Ill-prepared and ill-conceived” is probably the best way to sum up the 12-year education program that the government is rushing to put it into effect by August next year. President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) has said that the Ministry of Education is “fully prepared” to carry out the program, which aims to eliminate entrance exams, provide more options for school admission and bridge the education quality gap between the top-tier high schools and the rest
However, the government’s vacillatory decisionmaking demonstrates that it is anything but “fully prepared” to implement the program and the ones who will bear the brunt of its hastily drafted policy will be the students who will be used as the program’s guinea pigs next year.
The objective of the new school system is to give all students equal opportunities to receive an education. However, the funding strategy for and design of the new system are riddled with problems.
During his presidential campaign, Ma pledged that starting next year students would not have to pay tuition for senior-high schools. Yet, as the date of the education program’s implementation draws closer, the government has suddenly found it necessary to add a caveat that excludes students from “wealthy” families from being eligible for tuition support.
Initially, the caveat applied to students from families with an annual income of NT$1.14 million (US$38,200) and above.
However, on Tuesday, the ministry revised the threshold to an annual income of NT$1.48 million. According to the ministry, while the threshold would exclude 14.1 percent of the students who will enter high schools or vocational schools next year from enjoying free tuition, it would save the government NT$13.7 billion over the first five years of the program.
However, aside from the fact that increasing revenue is the solution to the government’s fiscal problems, not saving money, students are being labeled as coming from “wealthy” and “not wealthy” families just to save the government NT$2.74 billion a year. Also, since when did an annual income of NT$1.48 million stop being considered middle-class and become the kind of money earned by the “wealthy”?
Making the government’s economic qualification criteria even more unjust are the educational subsidies that will be given to the children of military personnel, civil servants and public school teachers, regardless of income threshold.
The program’s exam-free admissions system also misses the mark. Under the 12-year program, entrance exams would account for 7.94 percent of schools with “special programs” next year.
What subjects will those in “special programs” be tested on? How will they be tested and what is the quota? All these questions remain unanswered, causing more anxiety and qualms among students, teachers, school principals and parents.
Then there is the question of the legal bases for the new program: the draft senior secondary education act (高級中等教育法) and an amendment to the Junior College Act (專科學校法), which have yet to clear the legislature.
In the past, whenever an education policy reform was introduced, the ministry would first conduct a trial of the proposal and reach a public consensus that paved the way for across-the-board implementation of the new policy.
By contrast, the 12-year education program has been drafted in great haste.
Some people have speculated that the government is rushing the implementation of the new curriculum just to fulfill Ma’s campaign promise.
However, for the sake of students’ future, many people would — for once — be glad to see the president bounce his campaign check.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry