Despite the Ministry of Education's opposition, the Taipei City Govern-ment's Bureau of Education yesterday afternoon announced the score range of the Basic Competency Tests (BCT) on its Web site for the city's junior-high school graduates, saying the announcement protects the rights of the examinees, parents and teachers.
"We think the announcement will create a double win for the ministry and the bureau. It was never a political wrestling match with the central government as the public thinks," bureau chief Wu Ching-chi (
"We hope the ministry would look the announcement with a tolerant attitude since Taipei City has more diverse students, who face keener competition than those in other cities and need such a reference to choose the most suitable high schools for themselves," Wu said.
Wu said the bureau has conducted a survey about the announcement of the scoring range and found more than 87 percent of students, parents and teachers were in favor of knowing the range in order to make decisions about high-school applications.
Wu said that the bureau could understand the ministry's fear that the score range would become the only reference for students, but he stressed that students need more information and independence to select the schools they want.
However, the director of the ministry's Department of Secondary Education said yesterday in a press release that Taipei's unilateral announcement has set a bad example for students nationwide because the bureau knowingly violated the law.
"Taipei City Government's Bureau of Education cannot overthrow regulations and laws with the excuse that it conducted a survey about its plan, which we think was an incomplete one," department Director Lee Jan-yao (李然堯) said.
"There would be no democracy or freedom if everyone breaks the law knowingly like the city government," Lee said.
Lee noted that the BCT is a
national examination and education bureaus nationwide have to obey the rules set by the ministry.
"Taipei City could not join in the BCT first but disobeyed the regulations afterward, which is unfair to students and teachers in other cities," Lee said. "It is an example of negative education about law and order."
"We hope students can select a high school based on the schools' features, convenience of transportation and their interests. We want students to understand that the score is not everything," Lee said.
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