HUNDREDS of students from Taichung's Beitun Elementary School were recently infected with dysentery, which the Department of Health confirmed was the largest dysentery outbreak in 10 years. The health department found that the cause of the outbreak was a leak from the school's septic tank into the groundwater supply.
From this case, investigations revealed that due to geographic, economic and other factors, nearly 200 of the nation's 3,300 elementary and secondary schools do not have tap water. This apparently accidental incident stands in stark contrast to the recent assessment by the World Economic Forum that the quality of health and primary education of Taiwanese students has improved in the global rankings. Furthermore, it demonstrates that there is a severe lack of basic infrastructure at secondary and elementary schools and that the quality of their education is a cause for concern.
Although for many years Taiwan's education budget in proportion to GNP has been comparable to other developed countries. But due to the budget system, the sum allotted to various secondary and elementary schools has been minuscule.
First, there is the problem of the overall budgeting scheme. Taking the contamination of groundwater as an example -- although in past years, budgets devised by the national government have designated funds for improving water quality -- these funds have not necessarily been used for their specified purpose at the local level. This is mainly due to the fact that allocated funds have no specified purpose, or that the range of purposes are too flexible. Hence various local governments commandeer the funds for other uses.
Policy makers only emphasize that the educational funds in budgets drafted by various levels of government are calculated according to the Compilation and Administration of Educational Expenditures Act (
However, they disregard Article 5 of the Educational Fundamental Act (
Many education professionals point out that current education policies have moved from the original ideal of diversification to being one dimensional, while subsidies have become dictatorial. As base level schools need funding, they can only cooperate with the policy without objection.
Second, education funding often becomes misappropriated, as in school lunches. The Ministry of Education has provided special funds for school lunches in response to the rising number of destitute families. However, in some areas the funds have been used to subsidize kitchen staff salaries or purchase equipment, resulting in tens of thousands of school children going without lunch.
Compared to other developed countries, the lack of available funds makes classroom conditions and hygiene standards unsatisfactory. Even the children's drinking water is problematic.
Many education policies emphasize formalities while lacking a complete set of curricular components and evaluation mechanisms.
For instance, years ago the government proposed a ban on corporal punishment in schools, but did not offer counseling for staff. Other cases included promoting technological education in classrooms with no electrical outlets, promoting digital education without computers and promoting language classes without the necessary resources. Currently Taiwan is filled with policy-driven teachers' workshops, which do more harm than good.
These repeated failures of investment show that the physical fitness, health, eyesight, character and even the learning motivation of this generation of children are declining annually.
Only academic pressure is on the rise. What did the educational reforms praised for raising the level of every child really change? Why are educational resources in Taiwan still dogged by problems of deficiency and inadequacy?
The current case of dysentery infection in Taichung is only the tip of the iceberg. If educational funding is not critically reviewed, similar problems will reoccur.
Prudence Chou is a professor of education at National Chengchi University and the convener of the educational section of the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum.
Translated by Angela Hong
China has successfully held its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with 53 of 55 countries from the African Union (AU) participating. The two countries that did not participate were Eswatini and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which have no diplomatic relations with China. Twenty-four leaders were reported to have participated. Despite African countries complaining about summit fatigue, with recent summits held with Russia, Italy, South Korea, the US and Indonesia, as well as Japan next month, they still turned up in large numbers in Beijing. China’s ability to attract most of the African leaders to a summit demonstrates that it is still being
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
The Russian city of Vladivostok lies approximately 45km from the Sino-Russian border on the Sea of Japan. The area was not always Russian territory: It was once the site of a Chinese settlement. The settlement would later be known as Yongmingcheng (永明城), the “city of eternal light,” during the Yuan Dynasty. That light was extinguished in 1858 when a large area of land was ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Aigun. The People’s Republic of China founded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan. Taiwan was governed by the
The Japanese-language Nikkei Shimbun on Friday published a full-page story calling for Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership hopefuls to be aware of and to prepare for a potential crisis in the Taiwan Strait. The candidates of the LDP leadership race must have a “vision” in case of a Chinese invasion in Taiwan, the article said, adding that whether the prospective president of the LDP and the future prime minister of Japan have the ability to lead the public and private sectors under this circumstance would be examined in the coming election. The “2027 Theory” of a Taiwan contingency is becoming increasingly
RSS