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Teachers criticize tougher new rules for college exams

The National Teachers Association (NTA) said yesterday that it disagreed with a Ministry of Education (MOE) draft proposal that would ban students with poor grades from taking college entrance examinations.

NTA president Kevin Wu (吳忠泰) told the Taipei Times that the MOE may be trying to execute Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s (劉兆玄) plan to control the quality of college students.

“However, it is going about it in the wrong way,” Wu said.

Wu said the ministry should require that every university department establish an entrance threshold instead of prohibiting high school students with poor grades from taking college entrance examinations.

“The approaches to learning in high school and college are different. Students who perform poorly in high school may not necessarily remain underachievers in college,” Wu said.

Wu was responding to the ministry’s plan to ban high school graduates who fail to complete 160 credits by graduation from taking part in college entrance examinations the same year they graduate.

A story on the front page of the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) said yesterday that the ministry also planned to bar from graduation high school students who fail more than half of their credits in Chinese literature, English and math.

Currently, high school students who complete 160 credits, score more than 60 points on average on a scale of one-to-100 each academic year and do not have three major demerits are allowed to graduate.

High school graduates or those who earn the same amount of credits as high school graduates are allowed to enter college entrance examinations.

Lin Wen-hu (林文虎), vice chairman of the National Alliance of Parents Organization, said he was also opposed to the plan.

“Grades in high school are not reliable because they have a lot to do with a teacher’s personal style,” Lin said. “Depriving students of the opportunity to take college entrance examinations doesn’t make sense.”

A high school student surnamed Wu also criticized the plan.

“Different schools or teachers have different grading standards,” he said.
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