The subsidy plan is helpful
Following Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) proposal to subsidize students at private universities, which was initially to provide about NT$25,000 per student per year, the Executive Yuan has also broadened subsidies to make high school and vocational high schools free as well. The subsidy, which is to take effect on Feb. 1 next year, has been raised to NT$35,000 per year for each student attending a private college or university in Taiwan.
While some have called the Executive Yuan’s annual tuition subsidy plan “splurging,” and a vote-buying act for the 2024 presidential election, I do not agree. Whether it is making high school and vocational high schools free or subsidizing private university tuition, these are measures to reduce the general public’s financial burden. Even Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) supports the policy.
As the sub-replacement fertility has become increasingly severe — almost reaching to the point of a national crisis — one of the major reasons that put couples off having children is the continuous rise in the cost of education. Tuition is now alarmingly expensive, especially with private schools. Now that the government has proposed to lend a hand, policymakers across the political spectrum should be in full support instead of throwing cold water on the policy.
Former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) once famously said “never forget that the world has many sufferers,” while Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) proposed to have full government subsidies for children aged five and younger for one of his campaign promises.
As the Executive Yuan passed the act that would provide a NT$35,000 subsidy to students enrolled in private universities and full subsidies for high school and vocational high school students, policymakers and the public should appreciate the government’s altruism — a measure with the manner of “suffer what the people suffer” as Han used to say — to help families reduce the cost of their children’s education.
I have never understood why the government has always placed more importance on public schools than private schools, providing more subsidies to the former than the latter. Why do students who go to private schools always have to pay a lot more while getting the same level of education as public school students? This has resulted in a rather paradoxical situation: Children who are born in richer families usually attend public universities, while children of less affluent families attend private universities, resulting in an ever widening gap and class differences. The Executive Yuan’s policy is now seeking to remedy this inequality to push for better social justice.
Although Lu is from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), she knows the needs of the general public. From a maternal point of view, she fully endorses the policy as she finds it beneficial to her “children” citizens. As the Executive Yuan has come up with such a decent policy to promote people’s welfare and happiness, she is urging it to keep the policy going, to benefit tens of thousands of students to not end up as a flash in the pan.
Hu Yen
Taipei
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