On a rainy morning in New Taipei City earlier this month, 500 students from Shu Lin High School’s affiliated middle-school division (樹林高中附設國中) were sitting in an indoor sports facility, witnessing a paradigm shift in the nation’s public education system — one that could have long-term ramifications.
“During the journey of life, I hope you can think about what you truly want to do,” principal Lu Hung-ching (呂宏進) announced.
“Studying isn’t the only thing. Good grades aren’t everything.”
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
The focus on personal fulfillment is the latest message being sent to students — a new tune for a public school that previously urged young children to stay on the path of academic scholarship.
Since 2011, Shu Lin and other junior-high schools across Taiwan have been exhorting students to explore their interests, abilities and personalities, and to think about what careers truly suit them best. The push has become part of the new 12-year compulsory education plan, a byzantine reform to the nation’s schools that comes into effect in August and is made up of 12 separate projects. At the same time, another change has been rolled out quietly, with its own major implications.
For the past three years, instructors have been required to provide career counseling at the junior-high school level. While counseling has always been available for students who sought it, under the 12-year education scheme, the service is integrated into the school day and mandatory for the entire student body.
A second and more significant change to the counseling is its underlying message. In guidelines sent to school instructors and administrators, the Ministry of Education (MOE) urges them to help students “develop according to their disposition” (適性揚才).
‘ACCORDING TO THEIR DISPOSITION’
Across Taiwan, teachers have begun encouraging students to explore vocations that best suit their interests, abilities and personalities — even if these vocations do not lead to college.
At the Shu Lin High School presentation, professional animator Kent (肯特) told the assembly about his career and the alternative paths of education that could lead to it, while Lin Tsung-hsien (林宗憲), the day’s host, asked the children to share their wackiest aspirations.
“What is your dream job for the future?” he asked.
Lin himself listed sausage-making or cosmetology, with a specialty in sunspot removal, as possible answers.
The push to “develop according to disposition” is partly about filling a national shortage of skilled blue-collar workers. In addition, it’s about easing academic pressure on students, who power a cram school culture akin to South Korea’s.
This new policy also comes amid a falling return on an investment in a college education. Today, college graduates face diminishing career prospects. According to a new poll by National Taiwan University’s Center for Public Policy and Law, 70 percent of college-aged youth are currently enrolled in universities, but only 40 percent of available jobs require a college degree.
EXPERT ADVICE
In one respect, the new counseling program is consistent across Taiwan. Upon entering junior high, students each receive a Career Development Education Manual (生涯發展教育工作手冊), a blank workbook that their teachers later consult before offering vocational recommendations. Students record volunteer work, club experiences and results on personality tests, fitness tests and school exams.
But though these program requirements are constant across public schools, implementation has varied.
At the heart of the workbook are the pages on career exploration events (生涯試探活動). Schools are required to send children to events where they can explore certain specified fields, which include food and tourism, the chemical industry and agriculture.
Since 2011, the MOE has hosted a few career exploration events, but most schools have been left to their own devices.
Some schools, such as Lin Yuan Junior High School (林園中學), are sending students to nearby vocational schools for hands-on experience in different trades.
Other schools are hosting lectures by professionals — called “career experts” — in the targeted fields.
In Greater Kaohsiung, Youth Junior High (青年國中) has recruited its career experts by contacting alumni who have excelled in the workplace.
Other schools, like Greater Tainan’s Houjia Junior High (後甲國中) and New Taipei City’s Shu Lin, have gotten experts through the Eball Foundation (超越基金會) — a non-profit that handles the entire career exploration event from start to finish.
Eball was established by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and is directed by his daughter Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧).
Since 2012, she has coordinated over 20 career expert workshops, mainly in rural communities. The foundation also offers workplace experiences for students and a set of supporting textbooks.
It’s unclear whether this version of career advising, or any of its counterparts across the country, could truly convince students that they are free to explore their vocational interests.
It also remains to be seen how far-reaching its effects are on parents, who bear a main influence on the path of young learners.
But Su Chiao-hui, in a rare instance of cross-party amity, says the foundation is committed to working with the MOE on pushing career advising in its new direction.
“It’s just starting out — we do not know yet if the results are good or bad. We have no criticism,” she said at Eball Foundation’s career exploration event at Shu Lin Senior High.
“Still, the basic mission of the 12-year education program is guiding students to develop according to their disposition, and that goal is correct, we affirm it. The only question is how,” she said.
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