Yesterday was Children’s Day, but the mental health of children and adolescents across Taiwan is raising serious red flags. According to statistics, while the declining birthrate has caused the total number of students to drop by 630,000 over the past decade, reported cases of student suicide and self-harm have surged twelvefold. In response to concerns raised by legislators, the Ministry of Education stated that it is considering extending mental health leave, which is sometimes called “psychological leave” or “psychological adjustment leave,” to junior-high and elementary-school students.
The intent behind this policy is commendable — it would provide children with legal space to breathe when they are mentally exhausted. However, to maximize the effectiveness of a well-intentioned policy, implementing supporting measures at the junior high and elementary school levels would be a crucial step. Under the Child and Juvenile Welfare and Rights Protection Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), children are not to be left unattended — this means that children’s mental health leave must be accompanied by high-quality care from a parent or guardian. However, reality is harsh. For many dual-income working families, family care leave is classified as personal leave, and is often unpaid. Workplace and financial pressures often lead working-class parents reluctant to take leave unless absolutely necessary.
To better align with societal needs, the labor system should carry the baton by further promoting the institutionalization of “parental education leave,” along with exploring a reasonable mechanism for paid leave. This would allow children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to receive warmth and support from their parents in times of emotional distress. Such a measure would not only represent an improvement of labor rights, but a concrete realization of the social safety net.
The parental education leave advocated for by the National Federation of Teachers Unions aligns closely with President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of a sense of shared responsibility. From a labor rights perspective, parental involvement should not be regarded as a family matter, but rather as a necessary investment in maintaining social resilience and mitigating future medical and social costs. If the Ministry of Labor could coordinate with the Ministry of Education to provide workers with more flexible time for parental participation, businesses could also transform into pillars of family-friendly support, thereby investing in the nation’s future sustainable competitiveness.
Supporting young people is the nation’s most urgent responsibility to its future. Only by promoting parental education leave through legislation — transforming the pressure on individual families into shared societal resilience — can we truly hope to build a strong psychological safety net within our schools. We hope that cross-ministerial collaboration between the executive and legislative branches can replace the current model, allowing for more comprehensive parental support to become a solid line of psychological defense for children. In turn, they can grow into the resilient force that safeguards the nation. This would be the most heartfelt promise Taiwan could offer its future this year in honor of Children’s Day.
Yang Chih-chiang is a teacher.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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