The National Federation of Education Unions yesterday rallied outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei to protest a proposal by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋) to push back the legal retirement age for teachers to 65.
Wang, who is a member of the Presidential Office’s National Pension Reform Committee, made the proposal last week.
Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億), deputy convener and executive director of the committee, said that having teachers retire later is a global trend and that he would take the proposal to the committee for discussion.
Photo CNA
The Statute Governing the Retirement of School Faculty and Staff (學校教職員退休條例) stipulates that public-school teachers may retire after working for 25 years or when they are 60 years old and have worked for at least five years.
The federation said that teaching is different from other occupations because teachers often have to help students with their studies and contact parents on weekends.
With the supply of teachers already outstripping demand, schools rarely have openings for teaching positions, the federation said, adding that Wang’s proposal would add to the problem and is detrimental to young and inexperienced teachers looking for employment.
A majority of parents said they prefer teachers younger than 55, the federation said.
Taiwan Early Childhood Education Association president Su Yo-cheng (蘇祐晟) said he became a parent at a relatively late stage in his life and that he often finds parenthood tiring.
He raised doubts about whether older teachers would have the mental and physical energy needed to take care of classes.
“I cannot stand that kindergarten teachers are just like grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren,” Su said.
He also took issue with calls to push back the retirement for elementary and junior-high school teachers, saying there could be potential health risks for 65-year-old teachers having to demonstrate how to jump rope to students or dealing with rebellious teenagers.
The protesters urged the government not to make a reckless decision at the expense of teachers, students and parents.
The ministry said the average retirement age of elementary and junior-high school teachers is 53, while that of university professors is 60, adding that the decision on whether the retirement age will be prolonged is to be made in accordance with the committee’s decision.
When reached for comment yesterday, Wang said: “Do teachers give an impression that they are particularly more hard-working than others? I believe that society would have its own judgement.”
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing