Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday vowed to adjust the high school admission system in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan and to address issues caused by the prevalence of substitute teachers, which parents say have hurt students’ right to education.
Ko made the promises at a forum where he, Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) and parents discussed problems with Taipei’s schools.
National Parents’ Alliance for 12-year Compulsory Education vice president Chen Chi-chen (陳綺貞) decried the high-school admission mechanism under the 12-year national education system, saying that it had caused “displacement” of students’ rights.
Chen said that under the system, students are required to select groups of five schools according to their college entrance exam results and rank the groups according to how good their chances of admission are.
Chen asked Ko to at least double the number of schools that students are allowed to choose from, because if students are not accepted to any school in a group, they are “demoted” to the next group on their list, where they are pitted against others with lower scores, and one point is deducted from their test score, which she said is a “bully” tactic against students.
She said the confusing grading criteria for college entrance exams leaves students speculating on how many of their peers tested better when determining which schools they should apply to, turning the application process into a gamble.
Ko said that after discussing the system with New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), both agreed that it is feasible and the rules for next year have been officially announced, meaning they cannot be changed.
However, he said that if the system is meeting with strong protest, he would call a meeting to revise it for 2017.
“We will try it out, and revise it if there is a problem,” he said. “The rules will be changeable in 2017. I do not have any preconceived notions about it [the admission system].”
One parent said that there are a large number of sub-par, part-time substitute teachers doubling as class tutors, which he said has affected students’ quality of learning.
He said that to address the issue, the Taipei Department of Education in August launched what he called a system of “floating teachers,” which puts substitute teachers under the department’s control to manage them in a centralized manner.
Ko said he would make efforts to cap the number of substitute teachers at no more than 20 percent of a school’s faculty, on the condition that each substitute teacher must be qualified to teach more than one subject, to allow for more flexible assignments.
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