The legislature yesterday voted in favor of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal for a 12-year national education program, despite President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pledges that senior-high schools and vocational education would be entirely tuition-free from beginning next year, and that all students would be admitted to such schools without entrance examinations.
Under the Senior Secondary Education Act (高級中等教育法) and the amendment to the Junior College Act (專科學校法) passed by the legislature yesterday, an economic threshold will be set to exclude students from more well-off households from tuition support if they opt to study at certain senior-high schools.
The laws require that junior-high schools in each of the nation’s 15 districts provide no less than 75 percent exam-free enrollment, while the remaining 25 percent is to be available for students through entrance examinations who wish to attend schools with particularly strong specialties — such as mathematics and science, fine arts, sports, nursing, computer science or music — with admission rules varying from district to district.
Photo: CNA
Each senior-high school or vocational school must provide at least 25 percent exam-free enrollment every year, the laws stipulate.
During the review, lawmakers of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the People First Party (PFP) initiated various counterproposals to the KMT’s version, but all 64 KMT lawmakers in the 113-seat legislature voted along the party line to defend the policy U-turn made just two weeks ago.
According to the amendments, the 12-year education program will be composed of the current nine years of schooling for children aged six to 15, which will be compulsory, exam-free and free to all, as well as three years of non-compulsory senior secondary education, to which most students will be admitted without entrance examinations.
PFP caucus whip Thomas Lee (李桐豪) accused the Ma administration of “breach of the principle of good faith that a state should observe toward its people” just to save NT$2.5 billion (US$83.27 million) a year in tuition support.
“Why is the government not able to appropriate NT$2.5 billion to education?” he said.
Education is supposed to play a role in facilitating greater social mobility, but the admission rules for senior education under the 12-year education program act in a diametrically opposite way, DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said.
Given that senior-high schools admit students not only through exams, but also their performance in various fields and that the schools are not at the same quality levels, students will still face enormous pressures to advance to quality schools, Lin said, adding that “students from socio-economically advantaged families stand a better chance to get into quality schools.”
The program will start to be applied to students currently in the second year of junior-high school when they advance to senior-high schools or vocational schools in August next year.
The government has decided that the tuition-exemption threshold would be set at an annual family income of NT$1.48 million. It was estimated that 14 percent of households in Taiwan would need to pay tuition for their children enrolled in senior-high schools.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) praised the policy on tuition fees, saying that the nation is not financially able to support free-to-all senior education.
“The threshold was not set to exclude certain people. Rather, it means that the 14 percent of people who are well-off are offering help to the other 86 percent,” Chen said.
Lawmakers furthermore agreed that the system under which military training instructors are stationed in senior-high schools and vocational schools will be phased out within eight years.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei