With all the people looking forward to this month's presidential election, we may start speculating about what new policies the nation's next leader will come up with to invigorate our long-lasting education headache.
Taiwan is in competition with newly emerging regions like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and China, all of which are ideal for pursuing degrees and absorbing Chinese culture.
While marveling at the lessons to be learned from Northern Europe, we should keep in mind the geopolitical differences between here and there. Instead of merely looking at the figures and charts provided by magazine publishers, we must explore the flaws in Taiwan's education system and create tailored solutions to offer pupils what they really need to perform well in this era of globalization.
Taiwan enjoys unique and convenient transport advantages because of its location. However, Taiwan downplays its geographic and economic strength and confines itself when it comes to educational enhancement and academic exchange.
Taiwan's freedom of speech, mature human rights and outstanding economic growth have supported the preliminary stage for internationalized education. We need a consistent direction for education that is not based on malicious vote competitions between political parties. Instead, we need steps like increasing and financing opportunities for students to study abroad, aid for minority education and steps to bridge academic gaps between Taiwan and other countries.
The Ministry of Education has just adopted a policy whereby colleges and graduate schools that don't pass rigid school accreditation must cease enrollment the following year. This helps to refine department quality and highlight the dichotomy between vocational and academic-oriented institutions.
In short, Taiwan should recognize its standing in the globalized world and enact consistent education policies based on the present patterns of labor demand. There are clusters of graduates eliciting low-paying jobs or jostling for cruelly few genuine career opportunities. Encouraging and assisting them to extend their job-hunt abroad might help as higher pay internationally would help to alleviate the pressure of student loans and they would have the opportunity to accumulate more practical work experience.
A pan-Chinese region is more than likely to emerge in the future and Taiwan's youth must be ready to compete and cooperate with people from Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.
Whoever becomes the next leader of Taiwan, this year will be a critical time for him and Taiwanese youth to rehabilitate the education in Taiwan and get involved in the global trend.
Edward Lin
Banciao
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not