A missed opportunity to rethink reform plan
By Chuing Prudence Chou ©P¯¬·ë
Saturday, Sep 20, 2003, Page 8
After a half year's preparation
and tens of millions of NT dollars' investment, the National Conference on
Educational Development was held earlier this month. The conference was a big
improvement over the one held nine years ago in terms of its format, topics and
people involved. But it was a failure in many ways.
First, let's look at the topics chosen for the conference.
This three pivotal topics were: increasing education opportunities for minority
groups, promoting the quality and effectiveness of higher education and
completing the phased 12-year compulsory education program.
Obviously, these topics have failed to elicit concentrated
discussion from all parties concerned as well as to address problems derived
from the current education reform. Most of the suggestions made in the 90 or so
regional forums held before the conference focused largely on the side of "what
ought to be," without a lot of clear analysis. Little has been said about
conclusions made in the last conference, creating a sense of discontinuity.
Second, the conference did not really diagnose the current
problems, especially those regarding the cultivation of teachers and their
professional ability. As one academic pointed out, under the brunt of a
knowledge-based eco-nomy, teachers are challenged by the urgency of reforms as
well as complex learning results, rapidly changing society and redefinition of
students' learning indices.
Education reform needs to work with teachers in order to work
well. Whether in promoting constructive mathematics or the Nine-year Educational
Program, teachers' ability needs to be shifted or improved to cope with the new
curriculum. Unfortunately, these issues have not been addressed in the
conference.
Polls conducted by the Ministry of Education and feedback
from private groups have shown that problems are perceived in the process and
direction of our education reform. The ideal of loosening school curriculums and
lessening students' workload is impractical. Some criticize that our students
are treated like guinea pigs. The reform has been implemented in such a rushed
manner that parents barely have any idea about it and teachers have not improved
their teaching ability along the way.
Therefore, a national conference of this scale should
effectively address these major issues that derive from the current education
reform. It should not be an occasion where everyone has their say and that's it.
Education is a fundamental task, crucial for generations to come. In an
education conference like this, it is important for the attendees to address
main issues with persuasive statistics. Therefore the conference itself should
be equipped with a sound structure so that the agenda can proceed efficiently.
Content conducted in a scientific manner with substance should also be provided
so as to enable participants to review the past and make better decisions for
the future. Giving away beautifully-printed booklets for the conference would
not help much.
To review the education reform over the past 10 years would
have been a more suitable and practical topic for the conference. As a NT$157
billion five-year education reform program just came to an end this year, the
government would have appeared more sincere in its determination to carry out
the education reform if it had examined the reform in this conference.
Our education reform puts too much emphasis on easing
controls on the curriculum and lessening students' workload. The policy was
pushed forward without going through standard procedures so the speed was too
high and the scope too vast. That is why the objective of making our students
happy and excellent becomes gradually impossible. Fairness and justice have also
been unprecedentedly challenged during the reform.
The conference could have been a great opportunity for us to
examine these issues and set them straight. Unfortunately, the topics were
inappropriate as they were proposed by the education authorities with a macro
perspective. That is why the conference resulted in a discussion less relevant
to the needs of the public.
Prudence Chou is a professor in the department of education at National
Chengchi University.
Translated by Jennie Shih
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