In an attempt to curb the surplus number of teachers, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) last week instructed the Ministry of Interior to turn some of the nation's teacher-training institutes into places to train police, where would-be teachers can take courses and become police officers.
The suggestion has been met with criticism from educational groups.
"The government should provide educational training to prepare the type of professionals that society needs. The Ministry of Education should offer a proper substitute to reduce the number of spare teachers," Hsieh said during a meeting.
Hsieh has previously turned down a suggestion by Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) that more teachers could be absorbed by bringing down the number of students per class and increasing the number of teachers at each school.
The premier argued that with the declining birth rate in Taiwan, the number of students and the demand for teachers are destined to go down. The education ministry's solution will not solve the issue in the long run, and increasing the number of teachers at each school will only add financial burden to the government, Hsieh said.
Hsieh's suggestion that surplus teachers who have teaching certificates but have failed to pass teacher exams should train to become police was, however, slammed as a "near-sighted."
"Teachers and police officers are two different professions which require totally different skills. Most of the surplus teachers have received four years of professional training. It is inappropriate to ask them to give up their profession and learn to be a police officer," said Lu Hsiu-chu (呂秀菊), convener of the Alliance for Parliamentary Reform Actions yesterday.
Lu criticized the policy as "just another near-sighted offered by the government." She called on the education officials to provide a long-term plan for the management and distribution of the human resources, instead of offering ridiculous suggestion on the matter.
Wang Hsin-ling (王馨羚), an unemployed teacher and member of the Saving Teachers Association, also disagreed with the premier's solution.
"Being a teacher is totally different than being a police officer. Many of the of the surplus teachers are female, and I don't think they would want to become police officers. We received training to get teacher certificates because we love children and are passionate about teaching. It's not an attractive alternative for us," she said.
Dissatisfied with the low rate of people who qualify after taking teaching exams, thousands of certified yet unemployed teachers marched in the streets earlier this month, calling on Ministry of Education to pay more attention to the shrinking employment rate and other educational issues.
In response, Education Minister Tu suggested the ministry will cut down the number of students in each elementary school class.
Following the protest, the education ministry planned to increase the number of teachers in a classroom from one to two, but the idea was later shot down by the premier.
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