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Penghu scheme draws fire

The Penghu county government said yesterday it plans to require all foreign women who marry men residing in the offshore island county to receive elementary education in order to improve their abilities in communication and child education.

The county government said it would ask the central government not to grant foreign wives either citizenship or ID cards until after they have completed such elementary education in Taiwan.

In the initial stage, a county official said, it will offer meal and transport subsidies to encourage foreign wives, particularly those from Southeast Asian countries, to attend classes specially designed for them at various elementary schools in the county, which comprises a group of small islets off Taiwan's southwestern coast.

If all goes well, he said, the program will be implemented in the next school year.

The plan, however, has already drawn fire from the legal community, with legal experts pointing out that the plan is both illegal and unfeasible. Few countries anywhere in the world have made school diplomas a condition for citizenship, says a law professor.

"The requirement violates our nationality law and runs against human rights and humanitarian principles," he said.

He added that education regulations also do not authorize any county or city government to force people aged over 18 to receive compulsory education.

Yen Ping-chih, director of the Penghu county government's Education Department, said the county government is fully aware that it has no power to impose its requirements on foreign spouses.

"But we can't sit idly by watching child education problems worsen in our county, " Yen said.

"Our plan is partly aimed at underlining the seriousness of the education problems faced by our schoolchildren born to foreign mothers, particularly those from Southeast Asia."
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