Six out of 10 public-school teachers want to quit their jobs, according to Lee Tao (李濤), chairman of the Taiwan Cultural and Educational Foundation, a charitable organization affiliated with local TV station TVBS.
Lee, a former talk-show host on TVBS, made the remarks at the National Education Conference of Bureau Chiefs on Thursday.
Lee said that six out of 10 teachers in public schools want to quit their jobs, and the central government’s educational authorities had been making policy decisions that were “shot to pieces” by critics as soon as they were implemented.
Many conference-goers agreed, including the local government education bureau chiefs, some of whom also accused the central government of ineffective policies and meddlesome direction when approached for comment.
Taipei City Government Department of Education Commissioner Tang Chih-min (湯志民) said Lee’s comments “reflected most of the known facts.”
Tang said that although between 70 and 80 percent of his teachers were still dedicated to their work, many factors militate against quality public education.
Parents are too eager to impose their old-fashioned views about education on teachers, Tang said.
“Modern education creates successful learning by encouraging students to discover their potential and affirming their abilities,” Tang said.
Another problem was the digitization of education administration, Tang said. Instead of reducing busy work, the high speed of computer-generated forms merely increased the amount of paperwork that teachers now struggle to deal with, Tang said.
Taichung City Government Bureau of Education Director-General Yan Ching-hsiang (顏慶祥) said teachers face too many distractions and too much meddling to effectively perform their jobs.
Yan criticized the Ministry of Education’s Unified Inspections Program, implemented this year, saying it mandated unnecessary inspections and ratings that interfere with teaching.
“Trust is the core component of education,” Yan said, calling on the central government to reduce or streamline its inspections and ratings.
Non-educational central government authorities like the departments of health and welfare, environmental protection and transportation also burdened his schools by involving educators with public awareness campaigns, Yang said.
“Quantitative methods cannot gauge the quality of education alone,” Tainan City Government Bureau of Education Director-General Chen Hsiu-ping (陳修平) said.
Chen said she had told Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) in February that he should reduce inspections, ratings and public-awareness raising.
National Federation of Teachers’ Unions deputy secretary-general Luo De-shui (羅德水) said that Lee’s criticism was not backed by any statistical evidence.
However, Luo said that teacher-parent relationship had been “tense” in recent years, and that the field of education had become “hostile to teachers.”
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS