High-school and college students concerned about the development of curriculum guidelines for the 12-year national education system, set to take effect in 2018, yesterday discussed the electoral system for student representatives on the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Guidelines Review Committee.
The ministry held a meeting and asked students how they think the committee should be established, what qualifications students should meet to be elected committee members, the number of students that should be allowed to participate in the decisionmaking process, and how students can be elected.
Under an amendment to the Senior High School Education Act (高級中等教育法) passed last month, the committee is to comprise of about 50 officials, education experts, teachers, deans, principals, parents and students.
The ministry earlier this week published draft regulations governing the committee’s formulation, which temporarily sets the number of student representatives at between seven and 11.
Opinions differed over the qualifying age for students, with some participants saying that elementary school and junior-high school students should be excluded, while others said that age should not be a factor when measuring intelligence.
National Chengchi University professor Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮), who wrote the draft regulations, said he believes that elementary school students are unfit for the task because of the technicalities involved, but that there could be “prodigies” that could do the job.
Chuang said that age restrictions should not be included in the draft, but that a vetting mechanism should be put in place.
Many students said that parents should be excluded from the committee to give students more representation.
Yilan Huey Deng High School student Kao Chung-lun (高崇倫) asked why the amendment granted parents seats on the committee, saying the passage could have political motivations, such as soliciting votes.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said the number of parents serving on the committee and subcommittees shown in the draft are not final.
Pan instructed ministry officials to revise student numbers to between 11 and 18 to boost their representation.
National Central University postgraduate student Lin Yu-hsiang (林于翔) said the number of experts and academics on the committee, between 16 and 20, should be reduced to grant teachers and students more seats.
Lin said teachers are on the front line and should be granted a bigger say on the guidelines.
An over-reliance on academics could result in elitism, which might give rise to bias in textbooks, another student said, in an apparent reference to the protests in 2014 against curriculum guideline changes that were criticized as being “China-centric.”
Chuang’s proposal that an “election meeting” be held between July 18 and July 22, and that students who sign up for the meeting be asked to assemble in a venue where they can be told about committee members’ responsibilities, gained majority approval.
The ministry said it would announce a venue and application dates soon.
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