The legislature yesterday passed amendments to the Teachers’ Act (教師法), which included more clearly defined rules on the determination of “unfit” teachers, as well as an additional mechanism for schools to review teachers’ professionalism.
The amendments provide a legal basis for so-called “committees for the evaluation of teachers’ professionalism,” which are established at a regional level.
Their function had been limited to giving advice to elementary, junior-high and high schools when a teacher’s suitability was under review.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
The amended act requires all local governments to establish teacher evaluation committees. The committees would undertake investigations entrusted to them by local governments if the government’s opinion about a teacher’s fate differs from that of their school.
The regional committees should be presided over by local education heads and should be comprised of 11 to 19 government representatives, education experts, legal experts and children’s welfare experts, as well as representatives from local or national groups formed by teachers, parents or principals.
They should conduct impartial, fact-based investigations and publish abstracts of their probes after a case is closed, the amendments say.
At present, 21 of the nation’s cities or counties has a review committee.
The amended act defines punishments for teachers based on severity, which in the most extreme cases would result in dismissal and denial of future teaching positions.
Those convicted of treason, embezzlement, or sexual assault or harassment in a court or by the gender equality committee at their school would be permanently banned from teaching, the amendments say.
Those convicted of mentally or physically abusing, kidnapping or sexually exploiting minors, or committing other crimes defined by the Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法) would be subject to the same punishment, the amendments say.
Under the amendments, those found to have served a prison sentence of at least two years prior to beginning work as a teacher, as well as those sentenced to at least one year in prison after being employed, are to be discharged and banned from teaching if they have not served probation.
Those who have been relieved of their duties over breaches of the Public Functionary Discipline Act (公務員懲戒法) and those found to have breached academic ethics would be fired and permanently banned from teaching.
To ensure impartiality, committees convened by schools to review a teacher’s dismissal, suspension or termination of contract should comprise objective third parties, and teachers who have not been assigned administrative duties must make up more than half of the committee, the amendments say.
Should a committee fail to take timely action against a faculty member who should be fired, suspended or reassigned, the Ministry of Education or local education authorities must demand that the committee proceed with an evaluation, they say.
Teachers who are accused of professional negligence should be dismissed or barred from having their contract renewed if at least two-thirds of committee members are present at a review and at least two-thirds of present members agree that the allegations against them are true, the amendments say.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods