Education

A Century of Educational Reform

• Byline:KUO WEI-FAN
• Publication Date:03/01/2011

An art education program at a senior high school in Taipei. Specialized art education has been incorporated into Taiwan’s regular school system. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)

Today’s ROC boasts a school system that ranks seventh worldwide according to the prestigious Legatum Institute.

Education enhances national development, builds momentum for social progress and gives a country strength. The eighth National Education Conference organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE) was held in late August 2010. Major decisions of the conference and valuable input from attendees included making policies in response to decreasing birthrates, shaping a more effective model of university management, reorganizing some universities in the form of legal persons, promoting the internationalization of education, offering more courses to cultivate a modern citizenry and establishing systems for lifelong learning. According to the MOE, these points will be incorporated in the white paper on educational policies now being drafted as the guidelines for the following decade’s educational reform.

The first National Education Conference was held in May 1928 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province in mainland China. Even earlier in July 1912, the MOE had organized an interim education conference, where then Minister of Education Tsai Yuan-pei (1868–1940) presented two educational concepts that have since won high respect. One was the introduction of aesthetic education, or education that promotes creativity and appreciation of the arts, which could ultimately replace religion as the spiritual practice of choice for the individual. The other was the teaching of world views. At that time, however, academics considered “world views” an overly abstract and high-brow idea. The educational objectives promulgated in September 1912 of “putting emphasis on moral education, to be supported by aesthetic education in addition to utilitarian and military educations,” realized at least some of Tsai Yuan-pei’s ideals, however.

 

Educational reform has helped Taiwanese elementary schools develop a more open, pluralistic learning model. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

The MOE has held eight National Education Conferences in the past century since the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). Several other nationwide conferences, though not called “national education conferences,” have also had considerable influence on education policies. In the 16 years prior to the first National Education Conference, important education conferences included the National Education Administration Conference in November 1916, the School System Conference in 1922 and the Central Education Administration Conference held by the Nationalist government in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, mainland China in July 1926. Among them, the School System Conference held in Beijing in September 1922 was especially important in that it set the framework for the new school system for the following decades. The school system decided on at the conference would provide for six years of elementary education (four junior years and two senior years), six years of high school education including three years of junior high and three years of senior high, four to six years of university or three to four years of academy education in a higher education department, as well as graduate education at universities. The Beijing meeting was the key conference during which the government shifted schools from the European system adopted previously to the American system. The conference also recommended the first four years of education be compulsory for all citizens. A compulsory education policy was put into effect for children between six and 12 when the Nationalist government enacted the National Education Act in March 1944. The National Education Act also stipulates that those who are deprived of school or whose education is interrupted should be provided opportunities for remedial instruction. Compulsory education was extended from six to nine years in Taiwan in 1968.

At the first National Education Conference, the MOE officially designated the nation’s education goal as implementing a “Three Principles of the People” education. Founded in 1912 as the first republic in Asia, the ROC’s government is based upon the doctrine of the Three Principles of the People. These principles, which form the foundation for the Constitution of the ROC, have mandated a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Birth of Bo Po Mo Fo

The second National Education Conference was held two years later in Nanjing in April 1930 under then Minister of Education Chiang Meng-lin (1886–1964). Projects for the improvement of elementary, high school, higher and social education were approved at the conference. Another important result was the proposition by scholars including Wu Jing-heng (1865–1953) to require the MOE to “actively and promptly promote the learning of Mandarin phonetic symbols.” This decision started the widespread use of Mandarin phonetic symbols, known as bo po mo fo, when teaching reading and writing to children.

The third National Education Conference was held in March 1939 in Chongqing, mainland China and chaired by then Minister of Education Chen Li-fu (1900–2001). Since at that time the Japanese military had occupied parts of the Chinese mainland, the ROC government was forced to relocate to Chongqing. The mission of this conference was to formulate educational schemes during wartime. During this time many high schools and colleges had to be relocated to inland areas because of the continued expansion of war zones. Consequently, a huge number of teachers and students became dislocated. Hence, the MOE not only had to tackle the difficult problems of resuming schooling but also of providing teachers and students with emergency relief, making it a very tough task for Chen Li-fu to conduct educational planning. Nonetheless, the minister’s achievements during his tenure included the combination of moral, intellectual and physical education, as well as the standardization of student recruitment exams and of textbooks for elementary and secondary schools. Chen also oversaw the formation of independent teachers’ schools, as well as the regulation of qualifications, remuneration, publications review and promotional systems for the teaching staff of universities and independent colleges and the grading of instructors into four levels—professor, associate professor, lecturer and teaching assistant. All these have special significance in the history of the ROC’s education reform.

 

University students start a canoe trip around Taiwan from the northern coast of Keelung in July 2009. (Photo by Central News Agency)

The fourth National Education Conference was held in February 1962 in Taipei. The conference has been organized in Taipei since then. The government had planned to organize the fourth education conference in spring 1949, but due to the political and social turmoil of the time, the event was postponed for more than 12 years. When it did take place, the conference focused on anti-communist educational strategies and retaking mainland China, as well as emphasizing patriotism in elementary and high school education.

Conserving Chinese Culture

The fifth National Education Conference was held in March 1970. The conference discussed various issues related to the nine-year national compulsory education scheme put into practice in 1968, but in view of the Cultural Revolution raging in mainland China that posed a serious threat to traditional Chinese culture, the meeting also moved to formulate a number of guidelines for recovering and rebuilding the nation and its education and culture. Moreover, in line with the promotion of the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement, the conference also mapped out a cultural development scheme under the Three Principles of the People and a comprehensive educational reform plan.

The sixth National Education Conference came in February 1988. It was held against the backdrop of the lifting of martial law the previous year and the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo (1910-1988) the preceding month. The main agendas discussed at the conference largely focused on planning for long-term educational development.

As minister of education from 1993 to 1996, the author assumed the task of organizing the seventh National Education Conference. Taking place in June 1994, the conference covered subjects from “the promotion of pluralistic education and the enhancement of education quality to the creation of wonderful visions for education.”

Calls for Reform

Leading up to this conference, a campaign for educational reform launched by a number of nongovernmental groups reached a peak. The groups not only impressed the public with their arguments for reform, but had also twice held their own education conferences, though on a smaller scale. They also gained support from what they estimated were some 50,000 parents, who took to the street on April 10 the same year in an attempt to pressure the government to respond to their four requests, namely broadening access to senior high school and college education, developing smaller schools and classes, modernizing education and formulating a basic law for education.

A team of local university students are feted on
their return to Taiwan after winning the top prize
of a world supercomputing contest held in New
Orleans in the United States in November 2010.
(Photo by Central News Agency)

In the general discussion at the seventh National Education Conference, the government decided to set up an education reform committee under the Executive Yuan, which would spend two years carrying out a thorough review of education reform measures and formulating strategies for educational development in the 21st century. Two years after the conference, the education reform review committee chaired by Lee Yuan-tseh, then president of Academia Sinica, had issued four advisory reports (one every six months), along with a general advisory report that resonated with the MOE’s white paper on educational development for the ROC released at the end of 1996. Thus, the seventh National Education Conference was characterized by the establishment of an ad hoc education review organization tasked with examining educational policies thoroughly and planning for Taiwan’s long-term educational development soon after a national education conference.

With the conclusion of the eighth National Education Conference, the MOE is currently busy drawing up a white paper offering ideas for development around the theme “new century, new education and new promises.” This report should have a considerable influence on the development of Taiwan’s education at all levels. Meanwhile, there is the encouraging result of the 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index released in October 2010 by the London-based Legatum Institute, a prestigious international think tank. Among the 110 nations and territories surveyed for the index, Taiwan ranked seventh in the sub-index of education. Such a hard-won honor is a good indication of the ROC’s achievements in educational development during the past 100 years.

—Translated by Taiwan Review

Kuo Wei-fan is chairman of the board of the National Theater and Concert Hall and a former minister of education.