Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (
Fielding questions at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Education Committee, Huang said the Ministry of Education has begun a three-month review of the new "multi-route program for entering senior high schools" in order to make any necessary improvements.
"The review will last through mid-August," Huang said, adding that the ministry will not hesitate to correct any flaws or drawbacks in the multi-route entrance system. "But in any case, I don't think we should resume the old-fashioned joint entrance examination as the only way to enter senior high schools."
During the legislative meeting, some opposition lawmakers claimed that the multi-route entrance system, under which a biannual Basic Competency Test is a critical criterion in deciding whether a junior high school graduate can enter his or her favorite senior high school, is unfair.
PFP Legislator Diane Lee (
Aboriginal independent Legislator Kao-Chin Su-me (
Kao-Chin Su-me said she is hopeful that the ministry can design a separate secondary educational system for indigenous people that would increase young Aborigines' opportunities to enter senior high schools.
KMT Legislator Lo Shih-seng (羅世雄) said the "Basic Competency Test," which uses the average score of all students around the country as a key school enrollment index, is unfair to those students in remote rural regions.
* The new ``Multi-route program for entering senior high schools'' has been implemented for two years.
* The new system has been criticized by some lawmakers as unfair.
* The Ministry of Education said it agrees there is room for improvement in the system and it will solicit opinions on the matter from teachers, parents and others.
In response, Huang said the new enrollment system has been implemented for only two years and that it does indeed have some deficiencies. "There is still ample room for improvement," he said.
Huang said the ministry will solicit opinions from various social quarters and work out supplementary measures to plug any loopholes.
He added that any educational reform or entrance system reform must take into account the opinions and demands of teachers, students and parents. Moreover, he said, any enrollment system reform should not compromise on maintaining fairness.
Speaking on the same occasion, DPP Legislator Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said the system itself is not the most serious problem.
"The problem basically lies in the concepts and values of local people. If local parents cannot change their mentality of wanting their children to enter a few `star' schools, the enrollment problems will never be settled," he said.
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