Of the 13 schools that received the “Model Schools for Promoting Reading Habits in Rural Areas” award on Wednesday, Yongan Junior High School in Taoyuan has seen the most significant improvement in student grades, it said.
The Association of Literacy and Education Taiwan presented the award. It has since last year worked with corporations to support schools in rural areas to develop diverse and innovative education programs that promote good reading habits.
To date, 3,114 students from 34 schools have benefited from the program.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Rural areas have inherent difficulties in stimulating culture,” Yongan Junior High School dean Gu Ju-yu (古如毓) said.
The school has tried to foster reading habits by using tablet computers, Gu said, adding that technology must be used to shorten the educational divide between urban and rural areas.
When the program first started, the school was short on tablet computers and at one point had to ask for donations of second-hand tablets, Gu said.
The program gained traction after a Ministry of Education program was established to provide funding to improve or establish computer networks at schools, Gu said.
The school first encouraged using tablets for reading during self-study sessions before establishing a dedicated weekly digital reading class, Gu said.
“The results of our program were incredible,” Gu said, adding that the number of students receiving “A” grades increased significantly, while those with “C” grades decreased.
Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Electrical Engineering and one of the program’s founders, said he had seen many passionate educators who lacked the resources to increase reading skills.
About 30 percent of students in participating schools no longer have to receive remedial education for Mandarin or math, Yeh said, urging more corporations to help the association.
Separately, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said that reading habits are critical in acclimatizing students to more rigorous learning and, eventually, preparing them for work life.
“We are faced with a rapidly shifting environment and our learning methods must shift to compensate,” Pan said
The 2019 curriculum focuses on fostering students’ abilities to learn autonomously, to learn through interaction and through mutual collaboration, he added.
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