Tue, Sep 29, 2015 page3

• Parents protest ‘duty holidays’ by teachers

  TEACHERS’ DAY: Parents’ groups protested against union demands to allow teachers to take time off or cut their class hours so they can participate in meetings

  • By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
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  Standards should be established for days taken off by teachers’ union officials, parents’ groups said yesterday, braving rain and wind to protest outside Confucian temples across the nation.

  More than a dozen parents gathered outside a Taipei temple, shouting that unions’ “forcing” of collective bargaining was causing “disharmony” on school campuses.

  National Alliance of Parents Organizations (NAPO) secretary-general Lee Chao-jung (李昭瑢) said that the group chose yesterday as their day of protest because it was the birthday of Confucius, which is celebrated as Teachers’ Day because of his status as a model instructor.

  

  Dance students from Changhua Arts Senior High School yesterday perform at a ceremony to mark Confucius’ birthday in Changhua County.

  Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times

  She criticized union officials for demanding that schools cut their class hours to allow them to take “duty holidays,” saying the extra time off could harm students’ interests.

  “Union officials demand that they be allowed time off to participate in meetings, in some cases requiring schools to cut their course load to only four hours a week,” she said, adding that schools resort to hiring substitute teachers to fill in the hours vacated by full-time teachers.

  “Students’ education lacks continuity because they are taught by one teacher today, another teacher tomorrow and yet another one the next week. In addition, substitute teachers do not have the same training as regular teachers, so there are concerns about whether they can provide the same quality of instruction,” she said.

  

  Parents’ groups yesterday demonstrate outside the Confucius Temple in Tainan against teachers’ unions that they say are hurting students’ right to an education and creating on-campus tensions.

  Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times

  Lee added that there was currently no way of telling how union officials spent their time on “duty holidays,” calling for the establishment of clearer standards, as well as limits to the number of days which could be taken off.

  She reiterated parents’ demands to have full and equal participation in ongoing collective bargaining talks between the unions and local governments.

  The talks represent the first round of collective bargaining negotiations since new legislation allowed the formation of teachers’ unions.

  In addition to Taipei, similar protests were held simultaneously outside Confucian temples in Changhua County and Tainan by NAPO’s local branches.

  In response to the protests, National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said that the number of union officials eligible to take “duty holidays” is limited to a fixed percentage of union members by Ministry of Education regulations, with as few as one or two union officials eligible in less populated counties.

  Union officials use “duty holidays” to represent teachers at government meetings and also to carry out union duties, he said. He added that union officials are still required to teach two to four classes every week, a figure which he said was similar to that of school administrators.

  Additional reporting by Wu Po-hsuan
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