Prosecutors should take action against Ministry of Education officials for passing a special rule to benefit the board of the now-defunct Yung Ta Institute of Technology and Commerce, protesters said yesterday outside the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei.
About a dozen protesters affiliated with the Taiwan Higher Education Union gathered outside the office, shouting slogans calling for the school’s assets to be taken over by the government, after the ministry declined to withdraw a new regulation extending the school’s transition deadline by three years before a government takeover clause takes effect.
The private school was closed in 2014 due to dwindling student numbers, with subsequent school board “transition” plans for school property failing to pass government review, even as the net value of the school’s assets declined from NT$1.26 billion (US$41.63 million at the current exchange rate) to NT$1.02 billion.
Photo: Chien Lee-chung, Taipei Times
“That the board could continue to have such a high rate of expenditure after ceasing operations is incredible,” union president Liu Mei-chun (劉梅君) said, adding that the union estimated that the board’s official expenditure over the past three years totaled NT$503 million.
Union executive secretary Kao Shih-wen (高詩雯) said that it was difficult to gather information on the school’s specific fund usage based on public filings, raising concerns that the board was gradually selling off property and losing the ability to pay teachers’ claims for compensation for salary cuts.
The case is significant because many other private schools are watching to see how the ministry handles it, Kao said, questioning ministry regulations allowing flexibility for salary cuts in some cases, even as most private and public school salaries are fixed nationally.
Many other private-school teachers could face similar cuts and difficulties in making claims over the coming years as many other schools are expected to cease operations and transition in the face of falling student numbers, she said.
Based on the union’s estimates, compensation claims for Yung Ta’s salary cuts total more than NT$60 million, she said.
Defending the ministry’s move, Department of Technological and Vocational Education Deputy Director Hsieh Shu-chen (謝淑貞) said: “The regulatory revision aims to further restrict the transition timeframe and require the school to end [its operations] — not a relaxation of requirements.”
Ministry officials have previously stated that directly appropriating the school’s property without allowing an additional extension could have entangled the government in an extended legal battle.
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