The Taipei City Government yesterday said it would conduct a survey to review city education policies and schedule a timetable for urban renewal plans in Wanhua District (萬華), for which the municipal government has proposed abolishing Zhongyi Elementary School to make room for temporary housing needed for the project.
Department of Housing Construction Commissioner Lin Jou-min (林洲民) made the remarks following a meeting attended by city officials, school faculty, students’ parents and residents of the Nanjichang neighborhood (南機場), which was presided over by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Lin said that the city government would send personnel to the neighborhood to learn about residents’ needs and try to negotiate a consensus on underlying issues, such as how much property they would be entitled to after the project in relation to what they currently own.
The results of the survey would be published by mid-December, he said.
He said that people should not associate the abolition of the school with the urban development project, as the city’s Department of Education would rule on the matter after comprehensively assessing the needs of the city’s schools.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education said that it would assemble a panel next month to evaluate whether the school should be abolished and that a conclusion would be reached by the end of this year.
Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Tseng Tsan-chin (曾燦金) said that students at Zhongyi would likely be transferred to the nearby Xinhe Elementary School.
Zhongyi Elementary School Teachers’ Union representative Lu Yan-hui (盧燕慧), who attended the meeting, said the city government earlier this year granted school administrators funds to renovate the school, but later staged an about-face, adding that a project using the funds to address leakage problems in campus buildings is still ongoing.
She criticized the urban renewal plan as putting the economic benefits of the private sector before education.
She said that city officials should not be so optimistic about the project, as urban renewal laws stipulate that the government must gain the consent of all households before the plan can be carried out.
“The city government should communicate with residents before implementing the plan,” Lu said.
Lu said that the nearby Taipei Mandarin Experimental School has reached capacity and that Xinhe, where a school building is under construction, might not have enough space to accommodate more students.
She said that the school has great sentimental value to residents of the Zhongquin Borough (忠勤) and has helped develop a bond among residents; many of whom graduated from Zhongyi.
“If the 200 students at Zhongyi are forced to part with their friends as a result of the urban regeneration project, it could have a negative effect on their character development,” she said.
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