Addressing Challenges

 

Our next generation spends at least a dozen years in the national education system. Are they truly enjoying their learning experience? Can they genuinely achieve self-realization and become the best versions of themselves? Do the knowledge and skills they acquire truly mold well-rounded individuals capable of navigating the rapidly changing world of the future? Can Taiwan's current education system genuinely promote social mobility?

 

Emphasizing Diversity but Creating Confusing System

The very process of university admissions is marked by various methods such as application-based admissions, comprehensive admissions, star admissions, and special talent admissions, leaving parents, teachers, and students perplexed. Despite three decades of educational reforms aimed at diversifying university admissions to encompass urban and rural areas and various forms of diversity, top universities continue to predominantly enroll students from affluent backgrounds who have better access to educational resources. This has hindered social mobility.

 

Espousing Vision but Lacking a Clear Path

 

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government introduced the "2030 Bilingual Nation" (later renamed "2030 Bilingual Policy"), but it lacked adequate planning for faculty and teaching materials, rendering it destined to fail. In May of this year, the student organization "EdYouth" released the results of the survey of "2030 Bilingual Policy and English Learning Survey for Junior and Senior High School Students. " Nearly 50% of high school students do not agree that "incorporating English into other subjects can enhance their motivation to learn English." They perceive this policy as discouraging students with poor English language proficiency from participating further.

 

When there is a shortage of qualified teachers and teaching materials, students struggle to keep up, leading to reduced motivation to learn. As a result, the "2030" timeline is reduced to mere rhetoric, formality, and slogans, further exacerbating urban-rural disparities. In 2021, the proportion of public junior and senior high schools implementing bilingual programs in the six major municipalities (number of schools implementing bilingual programs/total number of schools in that municipality) was as follows: Taipei City (126/185, 68.1%), New Taipei City (101/249, 40.6%), Taoyuan City (71/233, 30.5%) ,Taichung City (103/281, 36.7%) ,Kaohsiung City (50/307, 16.3%) , and Tainan City (83/254, 32.7%). These differences are not only substantial, but the methods and results of implementation at each school also show polarization.

 

Squandering Money, Rather than Addressing the Root Cause

 

Vice President Lai Ching-te announced "an equality subsidy of 35,000 NTD per student annually" for private university students. Additionally, extra subsidies for economically disadvantaged students, tuition exemptions for senior high and vocational high school students, and improved student loans have been implemented.

 

Low birth rates are a global phenomenon. In Japan, it is estimated that the number of university entrants will decrease from 630,000 in 2022 to 510,000 in 2040, a nearly 20% drop. In South Korea, the number of students entering university in 2040 (283,000) is projected to be only 60% of the 2020 figure (464,000). In Taiwan, over the next five years, at least 40 private universities may exit the system. Therefore, subsidizing tuition for private university students in this manner not only hampers efforts to provide better teacher salaries and improve educational quality but also results in ongoing low student enrollment or university closures. This outcome contradicts claims by some educational groups that it will lead to "mediocre university education for everyone."

 

Taiwan continues to lag in global university rankings due to the dispersion of educational resources and the lack of long-term planning.

 

Let’s examine various nations’ allocation of higher education funding as a percentage of GDP in 2018: OECD members average: 1.0%, Japan: 0.4%, United States: 0.9%, Germany: 1.0%, South Korea: 0.6%, and Taiwan: 0.39%.

 

Solutions

 

Thirteen-Year Compulsory Education

 

The current enrollment rate for 5-year-old children is approximately 95%. Extending compulsory education by one year to the age of 5 through amending the Primary and Junior High School Act and the Compulsory Education Act. Regardless of public or private schools, the tuition fees will be fully borne by the government as opposed to currently partially subsidized. Designate senior high and vocational schools as "semi-compulsory education," making them tuition-free and increasing the proportion of students admitted without entrance examinations, ensuring equal rights of education.

 

Streamlined Learning Process by Making the Complicated Simple

 

Eliminate the requirement to submit records of completed courses. Reduce the uploads of learning result from six to three and shorten submission period from three years to two years. Reduce the number of diversified performance items from the current ten to a maximum of five.

 

Subject-Based Examinations Include Mandarin, English, and Mathematics

 

The current subject-based examinations use scores from the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) for subjects such as Mandarin, English, and mathematics. In other words, when a subject like Mandarin, English, or mathematics performs poorly, there is no chance for remedy.

 

Reducing Students' Stress; Rejecting a Single Test Determination

 

For Taiwan’s top universities, their Business Schools or Colleges of Management should change from using Math A scores in the current subject-based examination to Math B scores. This change is expected to be implemented starting in 2026 to alleviate the pressure on students preparing for the mathematics section and to avoid relying solely on a single, decisive test.

 

Government-Funded Training for bilingual Teaching Staff

 

The greatest challenge in nurturing bilingual teaching staff is training. The current government's approach to nurturing bilingual teaching staff is more conceptual than practical. Ko Wen-Je advocates the use of multiple channels to nurture bilingual teaching staff, using a combination of government-funded students, collaborative efforts between counties and cities, and self-organized training by schools. In addition, encourage current teachers to transfer to bilingual teaching roles to address the shortage of bilingual teachers.

 

Providing Gratuitous Bilingual Teaching Materials

 

Provide free online and offline bilingual teaching materials for elementary and junior high schools to bridge the resource gap in remote areas.

 

Supporting Vulnerable Groups: Education Equality

Establish an early intervention committee to integrate agencies of education, social affairs, and health to provide early treatment, guidance, and education for children aged 0-6 with physical and mental disabilities. Continue to implement the policy of Taipei City Government, which provides one respiratory therapist and one nurse for every 8 students with physical and mental disabilities to take care of these students on all facets.

 

Smart Education: Improved Learning

 (1) Recognizing the urgency of education, establish AI-smart-campuses by ensuring a device for each teacher, and a tablet for each student. Additionally, equip every classroom with interactive screens and provide fiber-optic internet and free wireless networks in every school.

 (2) Introduce a mandatory third language course — programming. Collaborate with senior high schools and colleges to offer AI-related courses and credits to promote an AI talent development program.

 

Lunch Legislation: Maximum Nutrition

Introduce a nutritional lunch legislation to guarantee the quality of school lunches, instilling confidence in students and providing reassurance to parents. Ensure that organic vegetables or rice are included in the menu at least twice a week. Implement lunch cost subsidies for economically disadvantaged students, capping their expenses at NT$75.

 

Higher Education Reform: Transparency and Accountability

 (1) Presently, funding for higher education in Taiwan stands at a mere 0.39% of its GDP, significantly below the OECD and U.S. standards of 1%. To facilitate the resurgence of Taiwanese universities into the global top 100 rankings, it is imperative to augment the investment in higher education. Furthermore, it is crucial to raise the salaries of educators working at the forefront of our educational system.

 (2) Promote a fair and equitable transformation of private universities and refrain from confiscating their assets for a smooth closure. As we confront the imminent closure of 40 universities, the government's complete seizure of these institutions' assets does not conform to the principle of proportionality.