Taoyuan leads in public approval of its education policies and its emphasis on education, while Taipei and Kaohsiung came in last respectively, a survey released yesterday by the Professor Huang Kun-Huei Education Foundation showed.
In the category of mayors placing sufficient emphasis on education, respondents rated Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) the highest, with 77.6 percent approval, while former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) had the lowest approval rating at 44.3 percent, foundation polling committee member Feng Ching-huang (馮清皇) said.
In the same category, Lienchiang County led other cities and counties outside of the six special municipalities, with 87.6 percent approval, while Hualien and Pingtung counties and Hsinchu City received more than 75 percent approval, Feng said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Hsinchu, Changhua and Miaoli counties all received less than 59 percent approval, Feng added.
Regarding approval of a city or county’s education policies and their effectiveness, the survey ranked Taoyuan the highest of the six special municipalities, followed by New Taipei City, Tainan, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Taipei.
Outside of the special municipalities, Taitung, Pingtung and Hualien counties received the highest ratings, and Miaoli, Hsinchu and Yunlin counties received the lowest, it said.
Regarding overall performance, Pingtung, Chiayi and Taitung ranked as the three highest-scoring counties, while Miaoli and Hsinchu counties and Keelung scored the lowest, it said.
Education is the fundamental driving force of social progress, and the poll seeks to understand what residents think of education in their respective cities and counties, as city mayors and county commissioners oversee education programs, foundation chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said.
The nation’s education system is showing signs that it is falling behind, unable to keep up with the rapid development of the economy and technology, he said.
Critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication are the four core skills that the nation’s talent pool should possess, yet the education model does not teach them, Huang said.
The US, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are beginning to enact education reforms to meet this challenge, and even Vietnam and the Philippines are starting to make changes, while Taiwan’s national education program remains focused on achieving high scores for the next level of education, he said.
Citing the results of this year’s Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students, Huang said it is worrying that more than 40 percent of examinees received a zero in math questions that were not multiple choice.
He said the foundation hoped the poll would help city and county leaders place more emphasis on education and reform.
The poll was conducted from Feb. 11 to April 29, primarily using landline and cellphone sampling. It received 21,597 valid responses from people aged 25 to 65, with education levels from elementary school to junior colleges and above.
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