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Education minister wants 'philosophers,' not fogies

"We need to keep in mind that the ultimate goal of education is to help each and every individual to build up his or her own consciousness." Ovid Tzeng, Minister of Education PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

The minister of education yesterday called on education officials to depart from the traditional formality of officialdom and instead strive to become "philosophers" capable of injecting creativity into their work.

The minister, Ovid Tzeng (曾志郎), made the remarks at a joint meeting of the Taipei City and Taipei County bureaus of education. The meetings involved briefings and discussions on the progress of the Nine-Year Educational Program (九年一貫國民教育).

The program, launched in September, is designed to integrate Taiwan's primary and secondary education systems.

While acknowledging the officials' efforts in developing the program and putting it into effect, Tseng urged them to adopt creativity as a central tenet of their strategy.

"While we educational administrators encourage teachers to be more like researchers in their fields," Tzeng said, "we should be more like philosophers."

Tzeng said that assuming the role of philosopher would encourage educational administrators to contemplate the long-term effects of their administrative decisions on students and the educational environment as a whole.

He added that thinking like a philosopher would help inspire administrators to be more creative in their decision-making and free them from feeling bound by rigid formality.

Tzeng also stressed that educators have a responsibility to ensure that students receive a high quality education to keep up with today's ever-changing society.

"We need to keep in mind that the ultimate goal of education is to help each and every individual to build up his or her own consciousness," Tzeng said.
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