The Ministry of Education has proposed a draft amendment to the Teachers’ Act (教師法). The comprehensive and controversial amendment has triggered intense confrontation between teachers’ groups trying to protect teachers and parents’ groups trying to remove unsuitable educators.
On April 15, both sides protested in front of the Legislative Yuan in a tense atmosphere. Several legislators criticized the government for sitting back and watching as teachers and parents headed toward a head-on collision.
The main cause of controversy consists of two points in the proposed amendment.
First, it would adjust the formation of teachers’ review committees at high schools and lower levels.
The amendment states that when reviewing whether a teacher should be dismissed, denied renewed employment or suspended, a school must bring in external academics and experts as committee members so that fewer than half of the members are teachers who are not part of the administration or the board.
The current law is at least half of the committee members must be teachers who are not part of the administration or the board.
Obviously, if more than half of each committee is made up of teachers without any administrative duties, they could unite and could block many cases.
The proposal shows that the ministry seems to assume that teachers will have each others’ backs when a school handles major disputes such as dismissing a teacher, so it must bring in academics and experts who are presumably impartial.
This has resulted in a backlash from teachers. Instead of bringing in external forces, perhaps it would be better if the ministry considered how to include fair teachers as committee members, so that they will not risk being dominated by factions.
The second point is the proposal would further divide Article 14 of the act regarding the dismissal, suspension and denied renewed employment of teachers into several paragraphs for more detailed regulation.
While the intention is good, the proposal adds two paragraphs to Article 27 regarding the conditions for dismissing teachers with severance pay.
One paragraph states that teachers should be denied employment renewal or be laid off if they fail to be promoted within a certain period.
The other paragraph says the same thing applies if a teacher breaches the school’s own teacher evaluation rules. This creates the impression that the ministry is giving colleges and universities greater administrative power to fire teachers.
However, scrutiny of these paragraphs shows that the premise for laying off a teacher is that they have breached their contract. When a teacher signs a contract, that is a sign that they accept its terms, so schools do have the right to deal with their employment accordingly.
This means that the new paragraphs have not changed the “status quo.” What should be examined is whether the terms of a contract and the evaluation rules are reasonable, and whether they give schools too much administrative discretion.
Everyone can go over the amendments word by word, but no matter how the act is amended, the greatest difficulty in removing incompetent teachers lies in how to determine whether they have contravened laws and regulations, or professional and academic ethics, or if they hurt the dignity of the profession.
These matters can only be decided by a teachers’ review committee, and this is why the ministry is trying to reform them. However, it is doubtful whether bringing in external academics and experts who do not understand the situation is truly helpful in clarifying the facts.
Chang Ruay-shiung is president of National Taipei University of Business.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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