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Don't just throw money at rural schools: researchers

When it comes to the education of students in rural areas, it will take more than money to improve their lot, National Taiwan Normal University professors Sharon Chen (甄曉蘭) and Wang Li-yun (王麗雲) said yesterday.

"Simply allocating sporadic funding or temporary aid, whether monetary or human resources, will not help," they told a press conference in Taipei.

In a two-year study supported by the National Science Council (NSC), Chen and Wang's team investigated 225 rural junior-high schools and found that the shortage of resources, teachers and funding hindered many students from academic success.

"Young teachers come for a year or two before they land permanent jobs in cities; the teachers are overworked because of staff shortages; the schools lack information technology facilities; and the community does not offer the public resources needed for youngsters to succeed in schools," Chen said.

Seventy-five percent of junior-high schools in eastern Taiwan and outlying islands are considered "rural," the study said, compared with less than 30 percent in the north, center and south of the country.

Schools that face the most difficulty are those that are "in-between states," meaning they are "not predominantly Aboriginal, nor are they so rural that they draw massive public attention," Chen said.

"The low socioeconomic status and education level of the parents and low level of cultural stimulation worsen the students' chances of getting into good tertiary schools," Chen said.

"City parents complain to teachers about assigning too much homework, since students have a lot of afterschool activities," she said. "But in rural areas the complaints come from the grandparents, who are rearing the children while their parents work in cities, because most of the homework is too difficult for the students, and the grandparents aren't capable of teaching the kids either."

Wang said the solution would require long-term commitment and a multi-disciplinary effort. Increasing the incentives for students to excel would also be key, she said.
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