Government promotion of semi-public daycare services has had little effect on costs for parents or improved teachers’ salaries, the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions said yesterday.
An online survey the group conducted among preschool teachers found that many semi-public daycare centers contravened government regulations, despite being partly funded by government subsidies, federation member Chang Hsin-jen (張馨仁) said.
The regulations say that semi-public daycare centers for children aged two to five must pay teachers at least NT$29,000 per month and cannot charge more than NT$4,500 per month per student.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
However, the survey found that 30 percent of teachers at such preschools are paid less than NT$29,000 a month, Chang said.
In Changhua and Chiayi counties, some teachers reported being paid as little as NT$21,000 — below the minimum wage of NT23,100, she said.
Moreover, 20 percent of centers charged monthly tuition of more than NT$4,500, she said.
Institutions charge above NT$4,500 by requiring parents to sign their children up for “enrichment classes,” which range from NT$500 to NT$1,200 per month, Chang said, adding that such classes could be anything from art to English, and are sometimes taught by people without childcare certification.
While many semi-public daycare centers offer such classes after regular hours, nearly 90 percent of them do not pay their teachers for the additional hours, Chang said, citing the survey.
A parent told the group that although the monthly tuition was reduced by NT$1,000 after her child’s daycare center joined the government’s semi-public program, she was charged an additional NT3,000 per semester for mandatory enrichment classes, Chang said.
Overall, the policy of semi-public childcare has failed to ensure improvement in teachers’ salaries or the affordability of childcare services, federation president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said.
The Ministry of Education must take measures to solve existing problems before launching the policy in the six special municipalities in August, Chang Hsu-cheng said.
“Otherwise, the subsidies it has been giving out go straight into institutions’ pockets without actually helping parents or teachers,” he said.
Meanwhile, a father surnamed Hou (侯), who has a one-year-old daughter, said the government should have focused on promoting public and non-profit childcare.
“The semi-public childcare policy was planned because of the time it would take to increase public and non-profit childcare services, but now that semi-public childcare is found to be flawed, it makes me wonder why that money was not spent on public and non-profit childcare,” Hou said.
Since the policy was implemented in 16 cities and counties in August last year, 309 private childcare centers have joined the semi-public program, while 31,761 children have been enrolled, ministry data showed.
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