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Tsao Chi-hung

Give Me the Resources, and I Can Bridge the Gap

Give Me the Resources, and I Can Bridge the Gap

Source:cw

Implementing Taiwan's new 12-year universal education policy is placing special stress on the island's rural counties, which have fewer resources and more broadly dispersed, smaller schools. One official speaks out.

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Give Me the Resources, and I Can Bridge the Gap

By Rebecca Lin
From CommonWealth Magazine (vol. 478 )

Whenever the subject turns to education, Pingdong County Magistrate Tsao Chi-hung's face becomes animated. Before becoming involved in politics, Tsao was a teacher at the county's Linbian Junior High School. Even since he became a politician, people still routinely refer to him as "Teacher Tsao."

Tsao was initially full of hope over the plans to implement 12-year universal education, but as the reality set in, he was left pounding his fist on his desk in a rare display of frustration, due to what he perceived as "pandering to the public" in pushing the policy through without proper planning and preparation.

Although geographically located at the tail end of Taiwan, the Pingdong County Government last year allocated 43 percent of its budget toward education spending, according to a CommonWealth Magazine survey, putting it solidly at the head of the class in municipal and county government education spending as a proportion of total budget (close behind number-one Taoyuan County). Tsao says he spends much of his time and effort keeping small schools in his county open, simply because, as he sees it, education is not merely about teaching, but is also vital for culture, history, the local economy and the restructuring of local communities and rural villages.

The ordinarily unflappable Tsao is now getting really worried. Implementation of universal 12-year education is imminent, but central government authorities have provided no direction for municipal and county government leaders, and budgeting of resources has not been clearly delineated.

Pingdong officials privately worry that once the new school districts are demarcated, the unequal allocation of resources among different areas, which has already led 20 percent of Pingdong County students to relocate, may compel more students to move to Kaohsiung for schooling as early as when they enter junior high. This makes Tsao even more anxious to narrow the divide between the two areas and build a system of six-year high schools, combining junior and senior high school programs under one roof.

To that end he has issued a grand challenge: "Give me the  resources, and I can bridge the gap."

What follows are excerpts from a CommonWealth Magazine interview with Tsao.


I'm fond of a quote from [Chimei Group founder] Hsu Wen-lung, who said: "You have to disinfect before you start the surgery." The 12-year universal education plan is akin to the country undertaking a surgical operation, but how can the surgery begin when things have yet to be properly disinfected?

If you want to carry out a particular policy, of course you can put forth some topics for discussion, but you have to give society at large a chance to discuss it to a certain degree of fruition before it can be carried out. The Ministry of Education must weigh whether that has been achieved and, if not, then they should not just randomly announce that the policy will take effect this year or next year and keep parents constantly on edge.

The central government must first fully clarify matters with municipal and county leaders who can then present the case to their constituents. This is the pre-surgery disinfection. Guidance has to be given for a new policy, and after everyone is clear on the subject, then it can be implemented. Otherwise, even teachers are left half guessing and parents naturally fall into a complete fog.

Even now, questions remain as to where the financial resources are to come from. We haven't been presented with a clear framework. For Pingdong County, our overall budget this year is NT$33.3 billion, but that amount includes reconstruction costs for disaster areas designated in the Special Statute for Post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction. Ordinarily, the total budget would be around NT$27-28 billion, with the education budget accounting for nearly half of that, at around NT$13.5 billion. And that already leaves us hard pressed for funds.

Although Pingdong's nine senior high and vocational high schools currently fall under the authority of the Ministry of Education's Central Regional Office, if primary authority is in the future handed over to municipal and county governments, each year thereafter Pingdong will have to raise more than NT$1.8 billion in additional funding. How is that budget to be delegated?

I'm worried that in the first year, the Ministry of Education will offer subsidies, then the next year require the county government to raise those funds on its own. It's like the three-percent raise in civil servant salaries that took effect in July. The Executive Yuan initially offered assurances it would meet its obligations, yet beginning in January of next year the county government has to start shouldering that burden. The central government writes a check, and we have to pay the bills. It's more painful than words can say.

Furthermore, to even out the disparities among different areas, we are also aggressively carrying out plans to convert junior high schools into six-year high schools. But just for upgrading Donggang High School from a junior high to a full six-year high school, I'm being asked for an NT$300 million budget, because it lacks a lot of soft facilities and lab equipment. How much more funding are we going to need to build more six-year high schools for kids to attend close to home and bring ourselves up to par with other cities and counties in terms of resources? Or are we to continue to allow the gap between rich and poor, the gap in educational resources, to keep widening?

Attending School with Peace of Mind

All you have to do is provide me with the resources, and I can bridge the gap. But I think proper preparations for the 12-year universal education plan have yet to be made. If the central government were properly prepared, I'd naturally be more than happy to carry it out, but the funding allocation has to allow each county and city to start off from the same place and put resources for county schools on an even footing with national senior high schools and vocational high schools.

In the future I also intend to amalgamate educational resources. I'll combine National Neipu Senior Agricultural-Industrial Vocational High School, National Tung Kang Maritime and Fishery Vocational High School,  Hengchun Vocational High School and other good vocational and technical schools, to allow teachers greater mobility in supporting Pingdong high schools.

Twelve-year universal education emphasizes apposite development, and despite most Pingdong high school students tending toward the academic side of the equation, there may still be some who are more interested in the vocational side of things. We want to be able to provide them with those opportunities, so we can't cut that completely.

All we need is to be provided with the necessary resources, and we can get this done. Because the way I see it, you can't shortchange the kids, you can't shortchange education, but most of all you really can't waste educational resources. If we're provided with the necessary resources for the 12-year universal education plan, we'll do everything we can to scrimp and save and find ways to make the most effective use of them.

Translated from the Chinese by Brian Kennedy

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