The Private School Act (私立學校法) should be amended to improve regulations of boards of directors at private high schools and universities, the National Federation of Teachers Union and the Taiwan Higher Education Union said yesterday.
Federation policy director Lo Te-shui (羅德水) told a news conference that the issue of private school board directors claiming school assets and inappropriately making deductions from teachers’ salaries has been rampant for years.
Citing Ministry of Education statistics, Lo said 46 percent of high-school students and 74 percent of university students enroll at private institutes, indicating that private schools deal with a high level of public interest and that they from the backbone of the nation’s education system.
He said that private high schools and universities receive large subsidies from the ministry, with private universities receiving more than NT$20 billion (US$615 million) in annual subsidies for general school affairs alone.
“Being granted such large sums of subsidies every year, there is no reason they should not be monitored,” Lo said.
The two unions have submitted their versions of the draft amendments for the Democratic Progressive Party’s reference, he said, adding that the groups would make public a list of lawmakers who are in support of the bill and take action against those who block the amendment.
Federation vice secretary-general Chao Yung-fu (趙永富) said legislators should push for an amendment who would lower the percentage of directors that are within the third consanguinity of one another from one-third to one-fifth the total number of board members, to halt the trend of boards of directors being operated as “family businesses,” which often gives rise to embezzlement of school assets.
Yu Jung-hui (尤榮輝), another federation vice secretary-general, said reform of the act had been slow, because the ministry views private schools as enterprises and has refrained from intervening in their operations.
Many retired ministry officials have become board members at private schools, and the boards where former officials serve often encounter less trouble when requesting subsidies, Yu said.
“The collusion between the public and private sectors is obvious,” he said.
Taiwan Higher Education Union secretary-general Chen Cheng-liang (陳政亮) said the act should be amended to include provisions that would mandate private school boards to assign third-party directors and supervisors to safeguard teachers’ and students’ interests.
With reference to schools that file bankruptcy, ostensibly due to falling recruitment numbers stemming from low birth rates, Chen said many directors closed down schools as a means to embezzle.
The act should be changed to bar directors from withdrawing school funds — an authorization granted to directors after a 2008 amendment — and that a loophole allowing directors to change board policies to allow schools funds to be moved into their pockets must be closed.
The ministry and local education agencies should enforce their authority to disband any boards of directors put on their watchlist that are deemed unfit to run a school, Chen said.
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