Lawmakers on Monday passed the first reading of a proposal that would permanently ban teachers found guilty of corruption, sexual assault, sedition or treason from teaching.
The proposal was one of several draft amendments to the Teachers’ Act (教師法) agreed upon by lawmakers and the Ministry of Education.
The draft also proposes removing teachers who use corporal punishment; bully and cause substantive physical or psychological harm to a child; or contravene the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法).
Such decisions would have to be approved by a majority vote by a teachers’ review committee.
A two-thirds majority vote by the committee would be required to remove incompetent teachers permanently or ban them from teaching for one to four years.
Teachers and outside experts would each comprise half of the committee that reviews cases of teachers accused of incompetence, harming the welfare of a minor, contravening gender equality laws, or bullying, the draft said.
The proposed amendments would establish institutional safeguards to uphold the integrity of professional educators and protect the student’s right to a good education, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
The disciplinary changes would not affect the vast majority of the nation’s teachers, who are committed to their jobs and act professionally, he added.
However, some teachers’ and parent groups objected to the proposed changes to the composition of the review committee.
Teachers who breached the Gender Equality Education Act (性別平等教育法) already face penalties from the gender equality committee, rendering the proposed amendments unnecessary, National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said.
“I do not understand the logic of putting the fate of a teacher in the hands of a review committee that includes outside experts instead of the gender equality committee,” he said. “It is just passing the knife to another butcher.”
National Alliance of Parents Organization president Maggie Peng (彭淑燕) said that the committee should deploy more outside experts.
“A teachers’ review committee should also bring in outside experts to evaluate a teacher’s competence to avoid conflict of interest for teachers working at the same school,” she said.
“We are not satisfied with the direction of the legislative amendments and if the administration continues to disregard the opinions of parents, we will have to resort to the ballot box,” Peng added.
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