Educational inequality has been recognized by the UN as a crucial problem that has negative effects on students’ learning outcomes and future life. While educational equality refers to distributing the same academic resources to everyone, educational inequality means providing students with unfair treatments or resources.
Academic resources include teachers, books, technologies and other materials used for learning. Having appropriate academic resources and good learning environments would help students acquire essential skills to increase their employability.
The World Economic Forum says the core future skills are: problem solving, working with people, self-management, and technology use and development.
To remain competitive in a changing world, governments should facilitate the development of such skills among their citizens. As the new trend pays attention to recruiting candidates based on skills and abilities rather than academic qualifications, governments need to provide their citizens with flexibility in academic qualifications to meet the requirements of future jobs. This means necessary academic resources should be available to serve the study programs.
People who experience educational equality are more likely to have good connections with others. So, they have more career opportunities, as well as choices for life. However, a challenge of offering equal education to citizens in many countries is about the capability to provide equal academic resources such as budget, technology and human resources (for example, competent academic staff).
Compared with developed countries in Asia (for example, Singapore and Taiwan), developing countries are probably unable to deal with disruption (such as digital disruption) because they have insufficient academic resources.
To achieve educational equality, national policies on education should emphasize the accessibility of quality education to everyone. Besides that, cooperation between Asian countries can reduce educational inequality.
Instead of focusing on short-term and unsystematic cooperation between countries, they should systematically exchange academic resources, such as technologies and academic staff, to avoid a shortage of skilled workers in Asia in the near future. This could lead to sustainable development of the region.
Phathara-on Wesarat and Anlaya Smuseneto are associate professors at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry gives it a strategic advantage, but that advantage would be threatened as the US seeks to end Taiwan’s monopoly in the industry and as China grows more assertive, analysts said at a security dialogue last week. While the semiconductor industry is Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” its dominance has been seen by some in the US as “a monopoly,” South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University academic Kwon Seok-joon said at an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In addition, Taiwan lacks sufficient energy sources and is vulnerable to natural disasters and geopolitical threats from China, he said.
After reading the article by Hideki Nagayama [English version on same page] published in the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Wednesday, I decided to write this article in hopes of ever so slightly easing my depression. In August, I visited the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, to attend a seminar. While there, I had the chance to look at the museum’s collections. I felt extreme annoyance at seeing that the museum had classified Taiwanese indigenous peoples as part of China’s ethnic minorities. I kept thinking about how I could make this known, but after returning
What value does the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hold in Taiwan? One might say that it is to defend — or at the very least, maintain — truly “blue” qualities. To be truly “blue” — without impurities, rejecting any “red” influence — is to uphold the ideology consistent with that on which the Republic of China (ROC) was established. The KMT would likely not object to this notion. However, if the current generation of KMT political elites do not understand what it means to be “blue” — or even light blue — their knowledge and bravery are far too lacking
Taipei’s population is estimated to drop below 2.5 million by the end of this month — the only city among the nation’s six special municipalities that has more people moving out than moving in this year. A city that is classified as a special municipality can have three deputy mayors if it has a population of more than 2.5 million people, Article 55 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) states. To counter the capital’s shrinking population, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) held a cross-departmental population policy committee meeting on Wednesday last week to discuss possible solutions. According to Taipei City Government data, Taipei’s