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Administrative Framework
Education in Taiwan is centrally managed. The Ministry of Education
教育部 sets national education policy, and directly oversees departments
and bureaus of education at the municipal and local levels. The
Ministry of Education has departments of higher education 高等教育司,
technological and vocational education 技術及職業教育司, secondary education
中等教育司, elementary and junior high school education 國民教育司, social
education 社會教育司, and physical education 體育司; bureaus of international
cultural and educational relations 國際文教處, and of student military
training 學生軍訓處; divisions of environmental protection 環境保護小組, mainland
affairs 大陸事務工作小組, and special education 特殊教育工作小組; a science &
technology advisory office 顧問室; as well as committees or councils
on academics 學術審議委員會, school discipline and moral education 訓育委員會,
medical education 醫學教育委員會, overseas Chinese education 僑民教育委員會, educational
research 教育研究委員會, and Mandarin promotion 國語推行委員會. Other affiliated
social educational institutions include libraries, museums, concert
halls, theaters, and an acting troupe.
After the streamlining of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the
provincial Department of Education has been restructured as part
of the Central Regional Office 中部辦公室. Each municipal government
also has a bureau of education 教育局, and county or city governments
have education bureaus or sections 教育局. |
Education is strongly emphasized in the Republic of China, as it has
been throughout Chinese history. Even the ROC Constitution requires an
allocation of the national budget for educational purposes (Article 164).
Over the last decade, the ROC's educational development focused on higher
education. Nearly 23 percent of the education budget was allocated for
994,283 students in the higher education system, whereas 39.76 percent
was spent on the 2,884,388 elementary and junior high students in the
compulsory education system for the school year 1998. This uneven distribution
caused the government to shift its focus and place greater emphasis on
improving the quality of compulsory education. In July 1997, the second
session of the Third National Assembly passed a provision to Paragraph
8, Article 10, of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the
Republic of China (for a complete version of the ROC Constitution,
see Appendix II) which states: "Priority shall be given to funding for
education, science, and culture, and in particular funding for compulsory
education, the restrictions in Article 164 of the Constitution notwithstanding."
Therefore, although this provision gives compulsory education higher priority
funding within the education budget, it also removes the minimum expenditure
requirements for different levels of the government as required in Article
164 of the ROC Constitution. Thus, after the implementation of the Additional
Articles, the government will have more freedom to allocate budget
resources for different government functions.
Civic educational organizations advocated new legislation to remove the
minimum requirement of the educational budget and to allocate a reasonable
budget for educational purposes. The draft Law of Educational Budget
Allocation and Management 教育經費編列與管理法 passed the Legislative Yuan on
November 28, 2000. Beginning 2002, the educational budget shall not be
less than 21.5 percent of the average of the three previous years.
For fiscal 1999, government spending for education, science, and culture
exceeded US$18.17 billion, or about 6.57 percent of the GNP or 15.50 percent
of government expenditures, roughly US$640 per citizen. (The reduction
of educational expenses was due to an appreciation of the US dollar during
the period, rather than a cut in the actual budget. The figures stated
here are based on the exchange rate of one US dollar to 32.27 New Taiwan
dollars.)
Nine years of education has been compulsory since 1968, and there is
a wide range of other educational options for citizens of all ages. From
August 1, 1999 to July 31, 2000 (hereafter, SY1999), more than 99.92 percent
of all elementary school-age children (age six to 11) were in school.
The total enrollment rate of the population aged between six and 21 was
84.83 percent, and more than one-fifth of the total population was attending
an educational institution of some type. In 1999, there were 7,915 registered
schools, with an average of 35.91 students per class and a student-teacher
ratio of 19.96. Of every one thousand, 237.25 persons studied in some
type of educational institution. The national illiteracy rate has been
further reduced to 5.08 percent.
Even though a larger proportion of the population now receives higher
education, the education system in general has been criticized for its
inflexibility and failure to address the needs of Taiwan's rapidly changing
society. As a result, educational reform has become a major theme and,
in the last few years, measures have been adopted to solve problems in
different areas of the educational system. Measures have focused on establishing
a more comprehensive compulsory education, universal preschool education,
improvement of higher education, diversified and refined vocational education,
a system of life-long learning and information education, additional channels
for continued study, a new student counseling system, and a program for
fostering pedagogic talents and on-the-job training. Furthermore, family
education, aboriginal education, special education, and budget allocation
and research are emphasized. These measures will be discussed in the following
sections.
Educational Tracks in the ROC 
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