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Parents ask for paid leave to attend school meetings

Working parents and teachers yesterday called on the government to amend current labor and education regulations granting paid leave when parents need to attend their children's school activities.

Working Parents' Alliance vice chairman Tsai Yuan-chen (蔡元鎮) said at a press conference that primary and junior high schools across the nation usually hold Parents' Day at the beginning of a new semester as a chance for teachers and parents to communicate with each other.

He added that many working parents, however, fail to attend because asking for a leave usually costs them a day's pay as well as affects their year-end bonus.

Taipei Teachers' Association president Ke Wen-xian (柯文賢), who was also at the conference, said: "If the government would like to encourage parents to participate in children's education, it should ask companies to grant parents paid leave for Parents' Day."

He told the Taipei Times that there is usually only one Parents' Day each semester and granting parents paid leave for the day is only a mild investment in education.

Taoyuan County Teachers' Association president Peng Ju-yu (彭如玉) said at the occasion that parents would be able to take better care of their children's educational needs if they were given the right to participate in their education.

The alliance's policy department director Chen Chu-po (陳巨擘) drew on examples from the US, saying that US states like California, Nevada, Washington and Massachusetts have passed a Family-School Partnership Act, which allows parents, grandparents and guardians to take paid leave from work to participate in their children's school activities.

The act, which first took effect in 1995 in California and later was expanded to include licensed day care centers and kindergartens in the legislation in 1997, gives parents, grandparents and guardians paid leave of up to 40 hours a year or eight hours a week.

Different states offer different ceilings for paid leave.

"We believe that family background, social status and the parents' occupation should not influence the educational resources their children receive," Tsai said.

"White-collar parents and working parents have the same rights to participate in children's education," Tsai said.

The alliance said it would give an impetus to proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), National Education Act (國民教育法), Preschool Education Act (幼稚教育法), High School Act (高級中學法) and Vocational School Act (職業學校法) during the Legislative Yuan's fall session.

Cheng Lai-chang (鄭來長), a senior executive officer of the Department of Elementary and Junior High School Education, and Adam Hsieh (謝青雲), a section chief at the Department of Labor Standards, said at the conference that the two government agencies would adopt a positive attitude toward the proposed amendments.
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