From a social welfare point of view, Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi’s (吳清基) dream to accelerate the nation’s implementation of a 12-year compulsory education system, from the current nine years, should be applauded.
So when his ideal clashes with the fiscal reality and compromises have to be made, many should have gone easy on him, because at least he tried, even though he failed.
However, a well-intended proposal has now turned into a complete blunder and Wu has no one but himself to blame.
Before assuming the ministerial post less than a year ago, Wu was a high school teacher, a university professor and then moved on to serve at the Ministry of Education for decades.
Wu should have known better about the difficulties and controversy surrounding the proposal to implement a 12-year compulsory education system after the current system was established in 1968.
Some question the necessity of adopting a 12-year compulsory system, since the quality of education in the current nine-year system still needs much improvement. Given the same quality of education, what is the point of putting students through three more years of mandatory study where there is limited room for them to benefit?
Improved education quality, therefore, should be viewed as a precondition to a new 12-year system. Most importantly, a 12-year system requires strong financial support and security backed by government coffers. That is the biting reality.
Without thinking about these complications, Wu went ahead and pledged in March that all students entering private high schools, vocational high schools and junior colleges in the coming school year would receive subsidies that would cover the tuition discrepancy they pay for public high schools.
Because of that verbal promise, several private high schools have reportedly accepted about 13,000 students who may not be able to afford the tuition after the Cabinet refused to endorse Wu’s pledge.
Without learning from its first mistake, the ministry, under Wu’s leadership, went ahead again and said that families with an annual income of less than NT$600,000 (US$18,500) would qualify for tuition breaks.
That was also rejected by the Cabinet, which raised the threshold to NT$900,000.
The policymaking process shows that the government handles policies as it sees fit.
Why was the threshold set at NT$600,000? And many angry parents ask: If it can be raised to NT$900,000, who’s to say that figure won’t be changed again? And why is a 12-year mandatory education system so urgent that Wu can’t wait to make his pledge until he has consulted his superiors or called for an inter-ministerial meeting to finalize details?
The public deserves to know the rationale behind the government’s policymaking process instead of being subjected to a single official’s wishful thinking.
The Cabinet should once again look closer into the recent outcry before it is too late to change its formulation of policies.
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