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Foundation pushes student rights

Five articles protecting students' rights in education should be included in teachers' contracts, and schools should be able to fire teachers who violate them, the Humanistic Education Foundation said yesterday.

The foundation proposed that teachers not employ corporal punishment to discipline students; that they not verbally humiliate students; that they not work after-hours at cram schools; that they not promote cram schools or reference books in class; and that they not otherwise violate a student's right to an education.

The foundation said that although the Teachers Law (教師法) provides for the firing of teachers who behave inappropriately or are incapable of performing their duties, the law provides no clear definition of inappropriate behavior or incompetence.

"When it comes to reviewing a teacher's behavior, the process is conducted by the evaluation committee in the school, with the school's teachers serving as the committee members," said Wu Li-feng (吳麗芬), executive director of the foundation.

"It is difficult for teachers to point fingers at their own colleagues and decide to fire them. So now we are proposing to clearly define five types of misbehavior in the teachers' contract, and if a teacher breaks any of them, the committee and the school could say the teacher has violated the contract and fire the teacher," Wu said.

Wu said that by including these five articles in the contract, the schools and teachers would establish the students' right to education as their top priority and schools could find suitable teachers who identified with the ideals of the schools.

Further, the evaluation committees would have clear regulations to follow when dealing with teachers who are not capable of performing their duties adequately, Wu said.

Wu said that the foundation would send an official document to the Ministry of Education soon.

It would ask the ministry to consider revising teachers' contracts throughout the country to include these five articles.
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