A national survey found that 30.1 percent of elementary, junior-high school and high-school teachers were unhappy with their jobs — the most common cause being having to communicate with children for their parents.
The survey by Shi Hsin University’s Opinion Poll Research Center found that these teachers on average gave themselves a score of four or less on a 10-point happiness scale, suggesting deep unhappiness, the Future Taiwanese Education Society told a news conference yesterday.
Forty-one percent of teachers gave themselves a score of more than six, showing that a larger number of educators are satisfied with their jobs, a center spokesperson said.
Photo from Yeh Ping-cheng’s Facebook
The leading cause of unhappiness among teachers is being asked by parents to help with parent-child conflict, as educators consider this a responsibility of the child’s parents, the center said.
The second most significant cause of unhappiness among teachers are the unrealistic expectations parents and the government have, which result in an unreasonable workload, the spokesperson said.
That was followed by a fear of being falsely accused of mistreating or abusing children, the center said.
The government should seek to stamp out false allegations and help educators fighting to protect their reputation, society chairman Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said.
Government agencies too often demand that educators take part in policy initiatives without providing an action plan, guidelines or directives, while the Ministry of Education seems to accept the demands of other ministries with no care for the burdens placed on teachers, he said.
Kaohsiung and Penghu, Nantou, Miaoli and Changhua counties are the areas with the happiest teachers, but Chiayi City, Chiayi County, Tainan, Hsinchu City and Yilan County have the least happy teachers in the country, Yeh said.
A few areas were left out due to insufficient data, he added.
The distribution of teacher happiness seems to indicate that educators are happiest in rural regions and least happy in urbanized and developed areas, which could reflect the cultural differences in parents’ approaches to education, Yeh said.
Urban parents are more likely to demand their children get good test scores and turn the screws on teachers should their children fail to meet their expectations, he said.
Teachers tasked with managing a class or performing administrative duties were significantly less happy than those who were not, he added.
The society called on the Ministry of Education to reject other government agencies and offices’ bids to place unreasonable burdens on teachers, push harder for the digitization of paperwork, create realistic timetables for implementing policy and repair parent-teacher relations, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS