On the eve of a National Conference on Educational Development organized by the Ministry of Education, pan-blue leaders yesterday unveiled their own education policies, proposing to offer free preschool education for five-year-olds and put the brakes on the minstry's plans to implement a 12-year compulsory education program
At their campaign headquarters yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"The opposition alliance of the KMT and the PFP think that education is a critical part of a nation's development and that investment in education cannot be spared," said Lien, who was accompanied by Liu Chao-hsuan (劉兆玄), vice president of a KMT think tank and convener of education policy committee.
"We stress the importance of training good teachers and creating a fine-tuning mechanism in our education proposals and hope to carry out education reforms based on the principles of quality, equality and simplicity," Lien said.
The leaders restated the alliance's opposition to government plans to expand the compulsory education program from nine years to 12 years.
But among the pan-blue camp's proposals, the most noticeable was the program of free and non-compulsory kindergarten education for five-year-olds, which would cost the government between NT$12 billion and NT$15 billion a year for the estimated 250,000 preschoolers.
The head of the PFP's education committee, Diane Lee (李慶安), said that it is important to establish a good beginning for school children. Therefore, she said, KMT and PFP legislators would sponsor and pass the budgets for preschool education if Lien and Soong were elected as president and vice president.
"Young parents who have preschool kids shoulder a heavy burden with kindergarten tuition fees, which are even more expensive than college tuition fees," Lee said.
Frontline teachers, however, were not impressed by the alliance's NT$15 billion campaign promise.
"We doubt they can find money for that program, since the treasury is so tight," said Lu-Hsiu-chu (
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) dismissed the alliance's proposals as unimaginative and derivative. In fact, said one legislator, the "new proposals" were were quite close to those of already proposed by the education ministry and announced by President Chen Shui-bian (
"There is nothing new in the [alliance's] proposals," said DPP Legislator Tsao Chi-hung (
But at least one education expert thought that the similar ideas coming out of the different camps was a good omen for today's National Education Development Conference being held at National Central Library.
Pan Hui-lin (
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