The Ministry of Education yesterday said that it would reject for a second time a joint draft plan by Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung to amend the ranking system used when the number of applicants exceeds a school’s enrollment quota.
The amendments had previously been rejected by the ministry on the grounds that they violated the Regulations for Pluralizing Recruit and Admissions to Senior High Schools (高級中等學校多元入學招生辦法), which governs the order and manner in which students’ scores are processed.
The new K-12 compulsory education program implemented this year mandated that when schools’ enrollment quotas cannot accommodate all applicants, students are to be admitted based on a complicated series of ranking formulas, which take into account students’ learning performances across various fields, levels scored on the Comprehensive Assessment Program and how high students place a school on their list of preferences.
While students are initially ranked according to a comprehensive score that takes into account all elements, this ranking produces substantial numbers of tied scores that need to be broken using a re-ranking system that compares different elements of the comprehensive score.
The amendments proposed by Taipei City would increase the relative importance of Comprehensive Assessment Program scores in the re-ranking process.
The plan filed by the Taipei City Government’s Department of Education yesterday was largely identical to the plan it originally submitted, with no substantial amendments made in response to the ministry’s original objections. The department also added an explanation of its legal stance on the plan.
The department said the changes it intends have prior precedent, with similar adjustments implemented in Greater Kaohsiung this year.
It added that under the Regulations for Pluralizing Recruit and Admissions to Senior High Schools, the department is responsible for drafting and implementing the re-ranking system.
While its plan must be filed with the ministry, the plan is not subject to ministry veto, the department said.
Wu Ching-shan (吳清山), director of the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration, said that Taipei’s plan violates the August amendments to the Regulations for Pluralizing Recruit and Admissions to Senior High Schools.
The ministry can only accept the plan when the proposal is in accordance with the law, he said, adding that both the central and local governments have a responsibility to act in accordance with the law.
He cautioned the department against going ahead without ministry approval, saying that this could lead to serious administrative problems.
In response, the department said it would continue to communicate with the ministry, but had no intention of making substantial amendments.
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