A new education wave has arrived in Taiwan.

The country has decided to launch a nationwide 12-year universal education system (it used to be nine), and this year's new seventh graders standing on the crest of the wave are getting edgy as they contemplate the new challenge they will face in the fall.

The new plan – one of the most important education reform initiatives in Taiwan's history – not only has implications for roughly 300,000 seventh graders but for 1.7 million elementary school students as well as future generations.

Parents are anxious and confused, and Taiwan's notorious cram schools have been gearing up to capitalize on the opportunities created by the chaos.

"What exactly is the 12-year national education system? What should I be doing?" asks one mother whose daughter will start the fourth grade this fall.

Changes Only Adding to Confusion

Deputy Education Minister Chen I-hsing, who is responsible for policy planning, describes the driving goals behind the reform plan as reducing the pressure students face, emphasizing adaptive development, and nurturing a diversity of talent to give students greater visibility on a global stage. The plan puts a priority on adaptability, quality and talent. 

Yet many people involved in education worry that the only concrete changes made so far have involved how junior high school students gain admission to high schools, and even those seem to have sparked far more confusion than clarity. Critics contend that the new system could actually weaken elite education, hurting Taiwan's international competitiveness, and also exacerbate the urban-rural divide.

"There is no comprehensive system, so the chances of success are uncertain. Yet the plan is being vigorously pushed forward," one scholar says with concern, comparing it to a car assembled from spare parts that fearlessly hits the road despite swaying wildly.

The new program has been met with both vocal skepticism and fierce resistance, but both supporters and opponents actually share a major common denominator – they believe the 12-year education reform is a project of "hope" and that pursuing adaptive learning in place of the traditional mind-set of test-centered education is a road Taiwan must follow. What the two sides are fighting over is how quickly and how aggressively the reforms should be pursued and what measures need to be devised to successfully implement the plan.

At the same time that the debate over the plan rages across the island, the accelerated competition among the world's countries means that time is not on Taiwan's side.

In the past, the backbone of Taiwan's manufacturing-based economic miracle was its nine-year compulsory education system. But as industries desperately upgrade to meet new economic realities, the country's education system has failed to move forward to complement new talent needs.

"The goal of education is to nurture talent. Different systems produce different kinds of talent. We are still using the examination-based system of 50 years ago to cultivate today's talent," says Hong Hocheng the dean of National Tsing Hua University's College of Engineering. 

Nine-year compulsory education led to a deepening of the talent pool, but its test-oriented nurturing system, which stressed precision and repetition, produced talent suited only to the manufacturing sector. Taking the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students, for example, where students' results are based on relative percentile ranks, "students don't know where their abilities really lie, so they constantly practice, and practice some more," says Chou Yu-wen, dean of the College of Education at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU).

In today's economy, however, manufacturing accounts for less than 30 percent of GDP, crowded out by other sectors that have grown substantially. The increasingly dominant service sector, meanwhile, requires interpersonal skills, such as understanding, sensitivity, empathy, the ability to communicate, proficiency and creativity. Yet in Taiwan's classrooms today, little importance is given to those qualities.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's social structure is rapidly changing, with the pressure of an aging society mounting relentlessly. Chou, who has participated in education policy planning, says that based on current population trends, there will only be 190,000 students entering the seventh grade in 2020, compared with 300,000 this year.

As a result, the 491 public and private high schools and vocational schools that currently exist in Taiwan will provide a glut of capacity in the future, meaning that either school quality will have to be upgraded systematically or schools will have to be weeded out by market forces.

From Quantitative to Qualitative

Many see the 12-year national education system as a make-or-break opportunity to raise Taiwan's education system to a new level. "If we don't boldly break out of the mold now, there will never be a solution," says one Ministry of Education (MOE) official. Because there is no turning back, the official says, simply throwing the policy into the open will promote change.

Voices to extend Taiwan's compulsory education system to 12 years were heard as long ago as 1983. At that time, there were only 30,000 to 40,000 junior high school students, but nothing came of the idea. Things have evolved since then, however, and in 2009, the National Alliance of Parents Organization and the National Teachers' Association organized the "I Want 12-year Education Alliance" and demanded that the government produce a timetable for the reform.

On Jan. 1, 2011, President Ma Ying-jeou gave the group a clear answer, declaring, "Starting this year, we will begin a phased implementation of 12-year universal education. The tentative plan is that, by 2014, attending high school and vocational high school will be tuition-free and in most cases require no entrance examination."

There would be no more waiting. Students entering the seventh grade in the fall would be the first to present themselves at the new system's starting line.

The declaration represented a critical point of transition from a quantitative to a qualitative orientation in Taiwan's education system, a transition that has taken nearly 30 years.

The biggest difference between the 12-year system and its predecessor is the spirit of the program. Under the new scheme, going to high school will be something students can do but are not forced to do, and education is treated as a citizen's right rather than an obligation. People can make their own choices, and for those who are willing to learn, there will always be opportunities.

There will also be a change in value. Beginning in 2014, tuition at high schools and vocational schools will be free. In the initial stage of the program this year, only students in households earning under NT$1.14 million per year will get the free-tuition benefit.

"Children shouldn't have to drop out of school because their exam scores did not get them into a public high school or vocational school and they could not afford a private school," says Nantou County education chief Liu Chungcheng, who presides over a county with many poor mountainous townships.

But the change that has drawn the most attention by far is how students advance from junior high school to high school. In the future, admissions to high school will be based on school districts. The country's five special municipalities (Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung) and 17 counties and cities will be divided into 15 school districts in which 75 percent of the high school and vocational school openings will be available to students without the need for entrance exams and without consideration of students' grades from junior high.

The remaining slots, at schools with specialized programs, such as the elite Taipei First Girls High School and Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, or schools for the arts, will go to top-notch students or students with special talents based on entrance examination scores. The only constraint is that no more than 25 percent of the admissions in any district can be based on entrance exams.

"Exam-free high school admissions will become the mainstream in the future to ease the excessive pressure on students when they make the jump from junior high to high school," says education minister Wu Ching-ji. The government hopes the outcome will be a stress-free high school admissions process and adaptive development that affords every student the best possible learning path.

What Wu did not say is that the government needs to capitalize on the opportunity to revitalize Taiwan's long-ignored high school and vocational school education system. At present, 98 percent of junior high students go on to study at the next level, but the high school system has seen its resources steadily fall. High schools were long under the jurisdiction of the Taiwan Provincial Government, but since the provincial government was stripped of most of its functions in the late 1990s, the high school system has been neglected and funding for higher education and junior highs and elementary schools rose at its expense.

In 2009, for example, 41 percent of all education spending went to junior high and elementary schools and 38 percent went to junior colleges and universities. Only 16 percent went to high schools, a share that was 4 percentage points lower than in 1999. Also, spending per student was the lowest for high school students, averaging NT$4,000 less than for elementary school students. (Table 1)

Hidden Dangers in the Education Maze

The allocation of education resources reflects the relative neglect of Taiwan's 15- to 18-year-olds within the education system. The MOE wants to invest more in high schools and vocational schools to raise the level of school environments and facilities, which it believes would enhance quality and achieve the goal of more equitable distribution of resources within school districts. Through the process, all schools could become "elite" schools, giving students more attractive options.   

In focusing the first stage of reform on high schools, NTNU's Chou says, the government is hoping they will serve as locomotives of change that will ripple down to junior high and elementary schools and upward toward higher education institutions. 

The first step into this new-generation "project of hope" will be taken in September, but while the concept has won widespread acceptance, only a broad framework exists for how it will actually work. Many details and specific measures remain unclear, and countless rumors of what might or might not happen have spread, leaving some parents in a state of panic.

They have suddenly found themselves facing a massive and complex "student promotion maze" that has many paths but no clues as to which one can get their children to the promised land.

Doubt No. 1: Will There Really Be Less Stress?

One of the main concerns of parents is whether the high school admissions process will really be less stressful without entrance examinations.

Lin Tien-fu, the head of Jhanghua County's Department of Education, says that regardless of whether admissions become test-free or tests are used to channel gifted students to specialized schools, "changing the system to lower students' stress in getting into high school is simply not doable."

The problem, Lin believes, is that many students will compete for the 25 percent of slots open to "elite" students or those with special talents, leading to competition that will be as intense as ever.

In addition, the pressure to move on to top-ranked universities will almost certainly continue to feed competition at the high school level. And even if the Ministry of Education steps up its investment in high school environments and facilities, such expenditures may be less influential on a school's perceived value than other intangibles such as the quality of teachers.

A good university is like a carrot tied to a stick that continuously tempts parents to push forward, and because of that reality, cram school operators are licking their chops over the new 12-year education program. Chang Wan-pan, head of the ROC National Supplementary Education Association, is extremely confident that the cram school business will continue to grow rather than decline.

Chang, who has been involved in the supplementary education field since 1981, says his confidence stems from his experience of the past 10 years, when despite constant education reforms and an emphasis on diversity and multiple admission tracks, cram school attendance has soared.

Today, there are over 18,000 cram schools around Taiwan, up from 6,700 in 2002. Of those, over 10,000 alone are dedicated to liberal arts and sciences. Chang estimates that the Taiwanese spend in excess of NT$100 billion a year on supplementary education, a reflection of the growing market. (Table 2)

So from all appearances, it would be hard to conclude that education reform initiatives in the recent past have reduced students' stress. "The more the system changes, the more chaotic it gets, and parents have become even more dependent on cram schools," Chang says.

Doubt No. 2: No Tests, No Motivation

In contrast to those concerned about continued stress, many teachers and administrators worry that if high school admissions standards are relaxed and a student's junior high school grades are no longer relevant, students at or near the bottom of their classes will have even less motivation to study.

"I was worried at the beginning, I'm worried now, and I'll still worry," said Rong-feng Wu, as a flash of fear colored his face. Wu, the principal of the Affiliated High School of National Chengchi University who also participated in education reform planning, says that 40-50 percent of children need to be supervised and pushed.

"With tests, there was at least a standard that had to be met that motivated children to work hard," Wu says.

But when teachers want to evaluate students in the future, the students could very well ask, "Why do we have to be tested?" because tests, which have long determined students' promotion to high school and college in Taiwan, will have lost their significance. 

Huang Jing-sheng, the principal of Da Li Senior High School in Taipei, predicts that students who performed poorly at the junior high level will almost certainly fall behind or even drop out once they reach the high school or vocational school level, because they were not screened by the entrance exam system.

Doubt No. 3: Are Teachers and Curriculums Ready?

Another concern is whether teachers and curriculums will prove sufficient to meet the challenges of the country's "project of hope." To help deal with the changing environment, the MOE has introduced 29 complementary measures related to creating teacher training units and setting evaluation standards for junior high and elementary school teachers, but they are still being thrashed out.

"The measures have not caught up with the policies," says one principal speaking on condition of anonymity, arguing that the measures would be put in place too late.  

With the elimination of high school entrance exams for junior high students, teachers need more than ever to get a feel for their students' aptitudes and interests and help them develop according to their own personalities and teach them based on their talents.

But the principal, who has spent most of his life in schools, questioned whether teachers had the necessary teaching skills and diverse course design abilities to account for the different motivations of students and achieve the program's goals.

Even more problematic is that Taiwan's teacher evaluation system remains a work in progress. Education authorities are even now virtually powerless to fire unqualified teachers – a huge headache for local governments. One education official has often said that if the financial resources are there, putting in place the 12-year education system will not be difficult, but what will be difficult is preparing the proper academic environment, especially teachers. 

Key Question No. 1: Where Will the Funding Come From?

From the central government and local administrations to parents and teachers, nearly all the stakeholders in this battle have similar visions for a 12-year education system, but many needs and resources have yet to arrive on the battlefield.

A budget is one of the key elements missing in action. At the central government level, although the MOE says NT$20 billion has been set aside for the 12-year education program, the actual government budget has adopted zero-sum budgeting principles rather than providing for an increase in spending.

At present, education expenditures account for roughly 21.5 percent of the central government's roughly NT$2 trillion annual budget, but within that education budget, money is simply shifted around, with an increase in one sub-budget required to be funded by a decrease in another sub-budget.

The government ignored such discipline this year when it opted for a supplementary budget simply to authorize the NT$2.75 billion in funding needed to pay for free high school education and subsidize schooling fees for 5-year-old children.

With the government showing so little determination, "what agency is willing to turn money from its budget over to education?" wonders Sheu Tian-ming, a professor in National Taiwan Normal University's Department of Education, who complains that rather than working from a bigger revenue pie, a fixed revenue base is simply being shifted around to try to meet the program's demands.

Key Question No. 2: Who Will Be Responsible for What?

Another issue facing the 12-year education initiative is that clear lines of responsibility between the central and local governments have yet to be drawn. After the MOE announced its 15 education districts, it instructed local administrations to draw up evenly balanced school districts within their jurisdictions by July 2012 and determine the percentage of slots (not exceeding 25 percent) that will be opened to students taking specialized entrance exams. But local governments have little leeway in terms of funding or the law to make such major decisions.

By dumping knotty problems on localities, the central government is clearly not shouldering its responsibility. Yet at the same time, it has refused to cede authority over high schools and vocational schools to local governments.

In Taiwan, control over high schools follows multiple tracks. Jhanghua County's Lin says that of the 22 high schools and vocational schools in the county, only three are actually run by the county. Of the others, 14 fall under the MOE's central Taiwan office and five are privately run.

With so many different chains of command in one county, "the MOE says it is up to the county to determine the number of slots open to elite students, but how should they be divided up? The central government-run schools may not listen to me," says a frustrated Lin. 

Although Taiwan's five special municipalities will be able to unify control of their high schools in August 2012, they also face the prospect in 2013 of no longer receiving subsidies from the MOE to help cover high school fees. When CommonWealth Magazine asked New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu how he would deal with the dicey funding problem, he answered honestly, "This is the next big challenge."

Chin-hsiang Yen, director-general of Pingdong County's Department of Education, suggests that only by unifying control over senior high schools and vocational high schools in a county can a partnership relationship be built and common goals and directions be adopted.

He also believes that beyond injecting resources to narrow the gap between nationally run and county-run high schools, there should also be an initiative to highlight special regional characteristics and help each school develop ways to differentiate themselves that are acceptable to parents. But Pingdong County commissioner Tsao Chi-hung remains most concerned about where he will find the funding for the extra NT$1.8 billion in education expenses with which the county could soon be saddled.

Good Intentions, Questionable Execution

Though the 12-year national education plan is considered by most people to be a good idea, the keys remain planning and execution.

Chang Ming-Wen, the widely respected director of the MOE's Department of Secondary Education, has sincerely described the spirit of the plan to parents in a series of public forums.

At every forum, he brings up a baseball analogy to explain the predicament facing Taiwan's education system. He says that Taiwan has won plenty of Little League World Series titles, but has not been nearly as effective at the professional level, "because everybody's arms are worn out by then." Overseas, children are encouraged to play baseball for the love of the game, Chang says, while in Taiwan it's often to win championships, and coaches use inappropriate training methods and even corporal punishment to get results. The approach is similar, Chang believes, to Taiwan's system of force-feeding education that kills children's appetites for learning.

The 12-year education system aims at empowering children to develop skills that will be competitive in the future, by upgrading a rigid system fostering precision and repetition to one that promotes a diversity of skills and learn to develop a passion for life. 

There are many issues, however, from funding, laws and organizational structure to curriculums and teachers, that the government simply cannot ignore in its rush to implement the initiative.

Translated from the Chinese by Luke Sabatier