Protesters against high tuition clash with police

A man clenches his fist during a demonstration organized by non-governmental organizations outside the Ministry of Education yesterday. Demonstrators protested against high tuition fees, calling it the ``commercialization of education.'' PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

A protest against high tuition fees in front of the Ministry of Education yesterday turned into a violent scuffle after a student was arrested for climbing over the ministry compound's gate.

Hundreds teachers and students paraded yesterday to protest against the commercialization of education which has caused tuition, text book and reference materials' prices to rise.

The rally started out from the Mass Rapid Transit's Ximen Station in the morning and proceeded to the offices of the education ministry.

The police arrested a college student named Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中), who climbed over the gates guarding the compound, for violation of the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) and illegally entering a government-restricted area.

Parents, students and teachers started arguing with the police, with the conflict turning into a violent scuffle as they demanded the release of the student.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) later appeared at the protest and said she would accompany Yang, who was being taken to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.

Lee asked the remaining student protesters to avoid further conflicts.

Yesterday's protest was headed by several groups including the Taipei Teachers' Association, the Laborer Parent Union and the Public Education Alliance.

The rally's organizers said they mobilized about 300-500 people to join the protest.

Luo Te-shui (羅德水), managing director of the Taipei Teachers' Association, said children's education has become extremely stressful for parents.

Education should take into account current phenomena such as how people are having fewer children and find ways to reduce the number of students per class to ensure quality education, Luo said.

Luo that decisions on tuition hikes should not be freely determined by individual colleges and the government should allocate more money to the education budget.

The lack of funding for education should not be passed on to the public in the form of higher tuition fees, Luo said, because many parents belong to the working class and cannot afford high educational expenses.

"Current education policies separate the rich from the poor, when in fact, every child deserves equal opportunities," he said.

Protesters yelled for Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) to come out and hear their demands.

However, the minister was in Kinmen attending education workshops and inspecting local education developments.

Ministry officials responded later in the evening and said that the education ministry is working on lowering the number of students in elementary and junior high schools from the current 40 to 50 per class to 35 to 38.

As for high tuition fees, the ministry has long paid attention to minority and poor students and will carefully monitor individual tuition hikes in colleges, officials said.

They said that the ministry would take in every opinion and discuss possible improvements.