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 (
"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.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do