In light of the Ministry of Education’s plan to close eight elementary schools, Hsinchu County Councilor Liu Liang-pin (劉良彬) on Tuesday proposed a plan to keep open two schools in Guansi Township (關西).
Liu hopes to preserve two elementary schools in his constituency by allowing them to run at a lower capacity so that the children could receive some courses within their own communities.
According to the ministry’s regulations, schools with a student population of less than 50 need to be assessed for closure.
Nanhe Elementary School has 21 pupils and Taiping has 18.
Liu proposed for the schools to cooperate with Pinglin Elementary School, the most popular school in the area, with the county government providing buses to drop pupils off at different schools for different courses.
The students living far from the school designated for that day’s lessons would be shuttled back to their original school to be picked up by their parents, Liu said.
Offering merged classes for the students from the three schools would allow the schools to save on personnel costs, as teachers could teach large classes of nearly 100 students, he added.
Liu urged the county government’s Bureau of Education to consider the viability of the proposal as it might allow schools with smaller student populations to continue to serve families in their original locations.
Bureau Director Liu Ming-chao (劉明超) said that the proposal would not reduce personnel costs if all of the schools were kept open.
However, he said that the proposal might help reinvigorate teaching methods, stimulate students’ desire to learn and inspire teachers to teach.
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