On April 15 and 17, the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee conducted article-by-article reviews of draft amendments to the Teachers’ Act (教師法).
At the April 15 session, lawmakers and the Ministry of Education agreed that the main authority to handle cases of child abuse — corporal punishment, bullying or other breaches of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法) — should remain a teachers’ review committee, which is essentially an internal committee of the school. The threshold for attendance at reviews was kept high — at least two-thirds of its members should be present.
These results are likely to hinder child abuse cases on campuses from being handled correctly.
Child welfare groups and parents proposed that cases of child abuse should be judged and investigated by a more professional body: the committee for the evaluation of teachers’ professionalism, which was established last year by local education authorities. They also sought to have thresholds for a review committee lowered to half for voting and attendance so that cases could be processed more effectively.
According to a survey conducted by a National Sun Yat-sen University research team, as much as 20 percent of cases identified as bullying at schools are misidentified, while another survey by the same team showed that about 20 percent of elementary and high-school teachers bully students physically or emotionally.
The researchers said that physical abuse included withholding permission to go to lunch, confiscation of personal items without returning them, locking a student in a closed space or tying them to a chair or other object, or hitting with the hand or an object, while emotional abuse included ignoring students, consequences for incorrect answer, mocking a student’s appearance and badmouthing a student’s family.
In an interview on Monday last week, National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said: “There is a certain ambiguity in Taiwan between bullying and disciplining.”
In light of the research and observations, there is little time to waste to get expert help for teachers to identify and investigate potential bullying. Otherwise, 20 percent of students will remain exposed to danger due to this “ambiguity.”
Child welfare groups and parents also proposed that teachers contravening the child rights act or causing injury in breach of the Criminal Code should be dismissed immediately upon verification that an incident occurred. There have been a few cases where a teacher after having committed such an act remains at the school, while the student affected was transferred. These instances are the most unjust.
Investigations and judgements by a review committee exposes affected children to additional trauma. This is why teachers who contravene the law should be removed immediately.
The legislative committee has finished its first reading of the draft amendments and has lowered the threshold for firing teachers found to have sexually harassed or bullied students.
Hopefully, lawmakers will think carefully about the proposals from child welfare groups and parents and consider them before the second reading.
A proper rule change would put parents at ease about sending their children to school, allow teachers to feel at ease around students and keep children free from physical or psychological harm.
Hsieh Kuo-ching is president of the Taiwan Parents’ Education Association.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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