The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions (NFTU) yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to announce an amendment to a rule that would require elementary schools to increase the number of full-time teachers and cap the number of part-time teachers in a bid to reduce the turnover rate of teaching staff.
NFTU president Chang Shu-cheng (張旭政) said the draft amendment would raise the teacher-class ratio for elementary schools with six classes or less from 1-1.65 to 1-2, meaning each class would have at least two full-time teachers.
Under the draft amendment, the number of teachers assigned to each class would be in inverse proportion to the number of classes, as teaching staff at larger schools are tasked with less administrative work, with the minimal value of the number of teachers each school should have set at 1.65 regardless of how many classes it has.
In addition, it would cap the percentage of part-time teachers each school is allowed to hire at 8 percent, Chang said.
The federation supports the draft amendment because it would make for a more reasonable distribution of teaching staff, Chang said.
However, as the amended regulations would require schools to hire more full-time teachers, the draft amendment, which was scheduled for implementation in September last year, had been shelved after it was met with objection from some local governments — which are obligated to cover 90 percent of teachers’ salaries — that are reluctant to provide more grants to schools, Chang said.
A survey conducted by the federation showed that Yilan and Nantou counties disagreed with pushing for the amendment, while Tainan did not reply, he said.
Kaohsiung Teachers’ Union vice president Chen Chien-chih (陳建志) said schools wanting to cut costs hire an inordinate number of part-time teachers who are paid low salaries — less than NT$20,000 per month after national health and labor insurance deductions — which has contributed to high turnover rates and hampered students’ quality of learning.
Citing a CommonWealth Magazine survey conducted in 2013, Chen said that one out of every six teachers worked part-time, a problem he attributed to the insufficient staffing quota stipulated by the existing regulations.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) said that the percentage of part-time teachers at some schools in Taichung’s rural areas was as high as 20 percent, and that the problem tends to become more serious in remote areas.
The federation called on the ministry to immediately announce the amendment so that it could be enacted as scheduled. It also urged schools to gradually increase the percentage of their full-time teaching staff.
In response, K-12 Education Administration division head Hsu Li-chuan (許麗娟) said the amendment would be delayed due to the opposition of some local governments.
Hsu said that the ministry would instruct schools to hire more part-time teachers to cover the shortage in their teaching staff.
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