Though a suggestion made by Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) on Monday to disband an ad hoc advisory group, formed to facilitate the implementation of educational reform, has drawn much criticism, several educators interviewed by the Taipei Times yesterday agreed with Tzeng's view.
Some educators said the committee has no legal authority. Others said they believe the task force hampers the ministry's ability to implement its policies.
"The establishment of the task force was well-intentioned, but [Tzeng's] attack could have been foreseen due to the task force's ambiguous status in government and its lack of specific goals," said Wang Jenn-wu (
The advisory group in question is the Educational Reform Task Force (
On Monday, Tzeng created a stir when he said the ad hoc committee should be dispersed because its existence had not assisted educational reform, but had rather impeded the ministry's ability to implement policy.
Not intimidated by the public outcry, Tzeng yesterday continued to elaborate on his ideas, saying that the Ministry of Education should be the only body to carry out educational policy. "Why is [the ministry] restrained by another group?" he asked.
In response, Wang said he was not surprised at such criticism due to the committee's unclear position in the governmental hierarchy.
Chen Hui-chin (
"The formation of the committee had no basis in law, so how can you expect it to accomplish anything if the group is not backed by any law?" asked Chen.
Another educational reformer Yang Wei-che (楊維哲), a mathematics professor at National Taiwan University told the Taipei Times that educational reform was such a complex undertaking that no one could expect a special task force to solve all the problems associated with it.
"The main focus of any educational reform should be the students and teachers. I am not denying the contributions made by the task force in the past, but I don't think it can be of value in improving the quality of our education," said Yang.
Pan Jung-li (
"The committee is just like the `father of the emperor' (太上皇) of the ministry, exercising supreme power. It is not possible for education ministers to accomplish much if they have to depend on the whims of committee members," Pan said.
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