Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) yesterday said that he is against a proposal to assign faculty members to the board of directors at private schools to safeguard workers’ rights, saying that teachers serving as directors could see them serving for “certain groups,” which could violate schools’ purpose of serving in the public interest.
Pan made the statement during a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, where he was asked to comment on a draft amendment to the Private School Act (私立學校法) proposed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅).
The DPP caucus tabled its own draft amendment, with the two drafts differing greatly.
Pan said that unlike corporations, which are aimed at making profits, schools aim to serve in the public interest, adding that assigning faculty members to the post of board member could cause a school’s policymaking to lean toward certain groups.
He said that allowing faculty members to serve on the board of directors would interfere with the policymaking carried out by deans.
During a question-and-answer session with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), Pan said that “directors of public interest” selected from objective members of the public could fulfill the purpose of faculty members doubling as board members.
Ko questioned the legitimacy of the DPP’s draft amendment, which states that only private high schools and technology or vocational universities receiving more than NT$40 million (US$1.24 million), or ordinary universities receiving more than NT$80 million in annual subsidies from the ministry should be required to hire directors of public interest.
Citing as examples scandal-embroiled Nan Jeon University of Science and Technology and Chi Jen High School, Ko said that directors at schools receiving grants ranging from NT$20 million to NT$30 million are more prone to corruption, while those at well-financed schools are less prone.
Ko asked if the ministry had compiled a watchlist of private schools that could have engaged in illegal dealings or are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Pan said that there were a dozen on the list.
Ko said the ministry should publish the list to avoid public censure when new scandals erupt, but Pan said an evaluation panel would watch the schools and that the ministry would not publish the list.
DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that Pan is under immense pressure at the helm of private school reform, given the far-reaching collusions often associated with private schools.
Wu called on Pan to sign a declaration stating that he has no suicidal intentions, lest he is murdered.
When asked if he supports designating public interest directors and supervisors to make school finances more transparent, Pan said he does.
The minister also said that he is against the rigid stratification often seen on private schools boards of directors, where seats are often “hereditary” and controlled by families.
Chang Liao underlined the importance of private school management, citing a 2014 corrective report filed by the Control Yuan, which said that the ministry had been negligent in its management of private schools.
Pan ascribed the prevalence of scandals involving private schools to the way the act was written, saying that the ministry often finds out about malpractice after a scandal erupts.
Pan said that the ministry would move toward adjusting the percentage of relatives allowed to serve on a board of directors by reducing the maximum representation of board members from the same family from one-third to one-fifth of the total number of board members.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS