On Aug. 19, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) used its legislative majority to pass three amendments dealing with the rights of Chinese students in Taiwan. In a comment regarding the amendments, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said, not without pride, that it cannot be wrong to make good use of resources that, as Taiwan’s birthrate continues to decline, have become superfluous and are left unused.
Last week, however, three Taiwanese doctoral and master’s students, each with several hundreds of thousands of NT dollars in student loans, called on the government to squarely face the problem of “youth impoverishment,” so they will not have to use all their income on repaying debt until they turn 35.
Does Taiwan really have a surplus of educational resources? If that is the case, then why do the numbers of college students who drop out for “economic reasons” continue to rise, both in absolute numbers and proportionally, from 9,521 students (0.72 percent) in 2006, to 10,368 students (0.78 percent) in 2007 and 10,660 students (0.79 percent) in 2008? Also, why are 73 percent of Taiwanese students forced to go to private colleges while only 26.9 percent go to public schools? Moreover, why has the average tuition fee at public colleges tripled in the past decade while that of private schools has only doubled?
The older generation used to encourage young people to study hard and obtain a degree so they could leave poverty behind. Today, the middle class is declining and nearing poverty. The fact is that more than one-quarter — 27.75 percent — of Taiwanese students need to apply for student loans to be able to afford higher education, which leaves them in heavy debt as they enter the workplace. With the government’s “moral” policies, the entry level monthly wage at many companies is a mere NT$22,000. After deducting basic living expenses and debt repayments, there isn’t much left. How are these people going to save money, and how are they going to pull themselves out of poverty?
Not only has the ability of higher education to promote social mobility been seriously weakened, the problem of domestic poverty has also been exacerbated. According to data issued by the Ministry or the Interior last month, the domestic income gap continues to widen, and the number of people living in poverty exceeded 260,000, a record high. Almost 70 percent of those who live below the poverty line are junior high school graduates, and only 6 percent of them hold a college degree. Most are not really jobless, but half of them are occupied in atypical employment.
Research has shown a high correlation between atypical employment and the working poor. In particular, the number of dispatch or temporary workers has grown rapidly in recent years. Their wages are usually lower than that of regular employees, and this might be a key factor behind the average salary reduction in Taiwan. How big is the dispatch work force? According to Li Jiang-horng (李健鴻), an assistant professor in the Department of Labor and Human Resources at Chinese Culture University, there are at least 330,000 dispatch workers in Taiwan. What is most frightening is that the figure jumped 169 percent between 2006 and last year.
In response to the increase in dispatch workers, the Council of Labor Affairs is planning to add a special chapter on dispatch work to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) sometime this year. However, some of the proposed articles are seriously flawed and may further boost the use of dispatch workers. In dealing with the public’s hardship, the Ma administration is not only incompetent, but also careless. Isn’t the impoverishment of the Taiwanese public serious enough for the government to take action?
Taiwan Thinktank is an independent, nonprofit public policy research organization.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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