Print

Mail

wiki links

Su's education slip draws fire

The education ministry's 12-year compulsory education plan was unveiled prematurely on Tuesday, as politicking by Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) left education officials scrambling to flesh out the details of the half-baked proposal, critics said yesterday.

Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) announced on Tuesday that his ministry would submit a bill to the legislature within six months calling for 12 years of compulsory education, more education subsidies and a phase-out of the Basic Competence Test.

Students are currently subject to nine years of compulsory education from age six to 15, while middle school graduates' performance on the Basic Competence Test determines which high schools they can attend.

Although non-governmental organization (NGO) officials praised the spirit of the education ministry's proposal yesterday, they warned against its contamination by politics in the run-up to next year's presidential election.

The plan's alarming lack of depth in mapping out the most ambitious overhaul of elementary and middle school education in decades -- with changes reverberating in higher education and the job market -- shows that politics have already gotten in the way, critics alleged.

"This plan could be one of the best things to happen to education in this country, but now it's falling victim to politics, and that's regretful," said Emily Shiau (蕭慧英), president of the National Alliance of Parents Organization.

An education expert, Shiau said the education ministry "had probably planned on unveiling the proposal a month later than it did," but was pressured by the Cabinet to trumpet it sooner to give Su a boost after he announced his candidacy for the presidency.

A rush to score political points for Su may have been behind education officials' fudging questions from reporters on Tuesday as to how the Basic Competence Test would be axed, and how the ministry would pay for new subsidy packages worth hundreds of millions of NT dollars -- details Shiau said education officials were still ironing out when the Cabinet leaned on them to go public with the plan.

"Su is getting a free ride [on the 12-year compulsory education plan bandwagon]," said Jerry Huang (黃聰智), vice chairman of the Taipei Parents' Education Association.

The plan was a work in progress long before Su became premier, he said.

According to an education ministry statement, 11 "quality" high schools nationwide would be "encouraged" to nix the Basic Competence Test requirement for prospective students in September, with more "elite" high schools doing the same "after 2009." However, education officials declined to specify just what criteria schools should rely on in considering applicants, saying only that the test would be totally phased out in "elite" high schools first.

"The ultimate goal is to get rid of the Basic Competence Test completely," Minister Tu said, without mentioning a timetable.

As if its plan weren't already fraught with uncertainty, the ministry later announced that no official "quality" or "elite" categories exist for high schools, and that they should apply to the ministry to be designated as one or the other.

That the ministry requires schools to apply to become "elite" or "quality" instead of doing its homework and making such determinations for itself -- especially when its plans hinge on such designations -- shows the ministry isn't truly motivated to implement the proposal so much as use it as a political tool, Shiau said.

"This plan shouldn't be about politics; it's too important," Huang told the Taipei Times.

"We're watching carefully how the government handles this," he said.
This story has been viewed 1541 times.