The number of babies born in Taiwan last year sank to a new low of fewer than 160,000. With the looming potential labor shortage caused by Taiwan’s low birthrate, the government should reform the education system.
During the opening of National Cheng Kung University’s Academy of Innovative Semiconductor and Sustainable Manufacturing in October last year, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) broached the idea of shortening the summer and winter breaks, an idea that did not prove to be popular among students, judging from their online comments.
When asked by the media for clarification, Tsai’s staff said that her intention was to make use of the seasonal breaks to cultivate more talent and enhance national strength in the semiconductor industry.
Intentionally or not, her remarks on semiconductor talent cultivation were creative indeed. The shortening of the breaks, and even the renovation and reform of the school system, are not only crucial to the cultivation of talent, but also to the significance for the government’s population policy.
Taiwan’s education system is less flexible than those in the West. By shortening summer and winter breaks, college and university students would be able to take more courses, shortening the time to reach graduation. This would enable them to enter the workplace earlier to start the next chapter in their lives.
Many European countries have been experiencing declining birthrates since the turn of the millennium, as well as aging populations and labor shortages.
The solution proposed by academics was to reform different levels of the school system. In the traditional education system, students do not graduate from universities and enter the workplace until they are 22 years old. If this process is delayed, or if they go to graduate school before starting work, other life stages such as getting married and having children are delayed.
Some European demographers have said that the fertility rate is subject to tempo and quantum factors. If women wait until a bit later in life to conceive, they might not be able to have the number of children they desire.
For this reason, they have proposed shortening the number of school years by having children start their education at an earlier age, while shortening high school and college years to allow women to enter the workplace sooner and secure stable jobs.
Another reason Europeans are considering reducing the school year is that if students graduate and enter the workplace earlier, it would solve labor shortages on a continent where the birthrate is lower than the population replacement rate.
Last year, the average age of marriage for Taiwanese was 34 for men and 32 for women, and by the age of 40, about 30 percent of men and 22 percent of women were still unmarried.
However, a survey by Academia Sinica said that of Taiwanese who were still single at the age of 34, 71 percent still wanted to have children.
In other surveys, it was found that the ideal number of children for women with higher education was two or more, and even higher for women without a higher education.
Given these considerations, reforming the education system by lengthening the school year and allowing university students to graduate earlier could help women marry sooner and have the number of children they desire.
Yang Wen-shan is a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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