Wed, Aug 03, 2005 page2

• Bushiban inspector denies detention

  ACCUSATIONS Officials denied that an inspector was locked in a room by uncooperative bushiban staff, and pledged to crack down on cram schools that break laws

  • By Mo Yan-chih / STAFF REPORTER
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  Taipei City education officials yesterday pledged to crack down on unlicensed bushibans, or cram schools, while denying a local newspaper report that one of its inspectors was locked inside a bushiban for almost an hour by the school's staff on Monday during a spot check of the facility.

  The bureau also denied the newspaper's claim that it did not start safety inspections of bushibans until after the newspaper published an expose on the subject, saying it conducted such inspections every year and planned the last round of spot checks in June.

  "Random safety inspections, administrative management and licensing bushibans are all part of the bureau's routine procedure," said Bureau of Education Director Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) at a press conference yesterday. "Our inspector did not face any threat from bushibans during the checkup."

  The newspaper had questioned the bureau's ability to exercise its power, claiming that when the bureau began random inspections on Monday, an inspector was locked in a room by staff of the He Wei bushiban in an attempt to interfere with the inspection.

  The inspector in question, Chiu Shin-yi (邱信義), flatly denied that he had been locked in a room by bushiban staff. Chiu was conducting a random check of two bushibans that had started branch facilities within 100m of their existing structure, which is against regulations.

  "The person in charge of the He-Wei bushiban was not there when I went in. So I waited about 20 minutes for him to come and accompany me during the inspection. There was no confinement during the inspection," he said.

  But when asked whether he was threatened or interfered with in any other way, Chiu declined to answer and left the press conference immediately.

  Wu said that in this year's inspection, the bureau will check on the overall environment of schools, examine firefighting equipment and review the records of 360 bushibans around the city.

  Those who fail to meet the regulations of the Supplementary and Continuing Education Law (補習及進修教育法) and Taipei City Bushiban Management Regulations (台北市短期補習班管理規則) will be told to comply within a month. If a second inspection shows they have not, the schools will be fined and forced to stop enrolling students for three months.

  Wu denied the bureau faced pressure from councilors to relax the regulations so that illegal bushibans could be licensed more easily. Illegal bushibans have been fined as much as NT$150,000 (US$4,700) for failing to include scooter parking spaces for students.

  According to the regulations, bushibans must provide scooter parking spaces for students to prevent traffic snarlups. Each classroom in a bushiban should be no smaller than 30m2, and any branches should be at least 100m away from the original building.

  The bureau said that it will conduct examinations of 50 large bushibans during the summer vacation and publish the list of those which are not in compliance with regulations. Bushibans that continue to flunk their spot checks may be forced to shut down.
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