Teachers’ groups yesterday urged the government to amend regulations to alleviate the administrative burden on teachers.
The Taiwan Early Childhood Education Union urged the government to amend regulations governing kindergartens and preschools.
Current regulations stipulate that kindergarten and preschool directors must also be teachers, resulting in overwork and high burnout rates, the union said in a news release ahead of Teachers’ Day today.
Photo coutesy of the National Federation of Education Unions
The typical preschool or kindergarten has a faculty of five teachers or fewer, but more than 150 children in its care, it said, adding that teachers must also serve as the school’s director and section heads.
This means teachers are in charge of enrollment, tuition, procurement, student health, meal arrangements and accounting in addition to caring for the children, the union said.
Only the director and one section head are compensated for administrative work and meagerly at that, it added.
The Ministry of Education should rethink its organizational scheme for childhood education, starting with hiring full-time administrators and tasking government health personnel with the logistics of medical services, it said.
The National Education Action Alliance also called on the government to reduce paperwork at schools, as it has reached “nightmare” proportions.
The ministry has pledged to cut the amount of paperwork educators must process, but its policies yielded no discernible effect so far, alliance chairman Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) said.
Teachers are not able to concentrate on teaching and providing guidance due to the extent of their administrative duties, Wang said, adding that much of the burden consists of meaningless work.
The National Federation of Education Unions said in a separate news release that local governments’ gifts for teachers on Teachers’ Day left many educators feeling slighted.
Most local governments give teachers coupons and trinkets ranging from electric massagers to liquor, except Pingtung County, which is giving nothing this year, it said.
Taipei teachers would receive a NT$2,000 bonus, the largest in the nation, the federation said.
New Taipei City teachers would receive NT$1,000 in coupons or gift cards, just half of what their colleagues get in the region next door, it said.
Taoyuan teachers would receive NT$600 of 7-Eleven coupons, Hinschu County teachers would receive electric massagers and Hsinchu City teachers would receive NT$500, it said.
Miaoli City teachers would receive NT$500 and Miaoli County teachers would receive a locally made NT$300 summer blanket, it added.
Taichung teachers would receive NT$600 of PX Mart or 7-Eleven coupons, Changhua County teachers would receive NT$300 OK Mart coupons and a plastic food container, while Yunlin County teachers would receive NT$300 of 7-Eleven coupons, it said.
Chiayi county and city teachers would receive a signed greeting card from the county commissioner and mayor respectively, while Hualien County teachers would receive Eslite bookstore coupons worth NT$600, it added.
Yilan County teachers would receive NT$200 and Penghu County teachers would receive NT$500 in convenience store coupons, it said.
Kinmen County teachers would receive a bottle of Kaoliang liquor, it added.
Federation members believe that the government should make Teachers’ Day a holiday for teachers or cancel it altogether, federation president Lin Shuo-chieh (林碩杰) said.
Teachers’ Day is celebrated in Taiwan on Sept. 28, the assumed birthday of Confucius (孔子).
Separately yesterday, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that the caucus is to propose a bill to make Teachers’ Day and Workers’ Day on May 1 national holidays.
Created to fulfil TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) presidential campaign platform to promote a labor-friendly environment, the TPP proposed to make Teachers’ Day a holiday and allow everyone to have Workers’ Day off, Huang said.
TPP Legislator Mach Ngoc Tran (麥玉珍) said that Taiwanese are even more overworked and underpaid following amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
The TPP is to continue to fight for labor rights and promote policies that increase the number of mandatory national holidays, she said.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
RSS