Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.5 The Taiwanese Context .1 Country Profile
2.5.2 The Education System of Taiwan
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About half of the Taiwanese population is a member of a religious association.
Among these, 42.9% are Buddhist, 35.6% Taoist, 6.6% I-Kuan Tao, 4.7% Protestant, 4.1%
Islam, and 2.3% Roman Catholic (Library of Congress, 2005).
Taiwan, in 2009, had a nominal GDP of US$ 16,442 per capita which translated into a GDP at PPP of US$31,834 per capita (Government Information Office, 2010). That same year, the GDP had a negative growth of 1.9% and the GDP per capita at PPP ranked 43rd in the world (Central Intelligence Agency, 2010). Inflation for 2010 was estimated at 1.3% and the unemployment rate estimate for 2010 was 5.2% (Central Intelligence Agency, 2010).
2.5.2 The Education System of Taiwan
Like other East Asian societies, Taiwan‟s education has been influenced by Confucian values (Chou & Ho, 2007). Confucius considered learning to be human‟s most important defining characteristic (Yao, 2003). A result of the Confucian tradition is that Chinese society in Taiwan places an emphasis on credentialism and examination systems where the
examinations are expected to be fair and allow for social upward mobility (Chou & Ho, 2007).
Parents place high value on academic performance and the school curriculum, therefore, focuses heavily on preparing students for their examinations.
The educational process in Taiwan is viewed as a two-fold activity (D. C. Smith, 1991). It is the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next along with the concept of development of new ideas through understanding the old. Therefore, education involves acquiring knowledge and understanding of that which has already been accepted.
This is reflected in the use of symbols in Chinese written language which can only be learned through memorization. In secondary education, memorization, drilling, and examinations are common teaching methods. Schools are also the place where values, morals, and ethical
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with an education that includes both basic knowledge and moral precepts” (Kang, Lovett, &
Haring, 2002, p. 13).
After Japan‟s defeat in World War II, Taiwan quickly replaced its Japanese educators by their own intellectuals who had received their educational training in the United States.
Eventually, the American style “six-three-three-four” system was adopted (Chou & Ho, 2007). This system encompasses six years of primary education, three years each for both lower and upper secondary education, followed by four years of undergraduate tertiary education. After this, graduate school programs can take one to four years and doctoral degree programs anywhere between two and seven years, depending on the department.
In 1968, nine-year compulsory education was established encompassing six years of primary education and three years of junior secondary education (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Currently, there are plans to include senior secondary education as part of compulsory education, making it a 12-year program.
Upper secondary education can be divided into normal senior, senior vocational, comprehensive, single discipline, experimental, and combined high schools (Chou & Ho, 2007). The two most common among these are the normal and vocational institutions.
Normal senior high schools aim to nurture high-quality professionals with a global outlook while senior vocational high schools strive to develop technical manpower for economic development (Ministry of Education, 2007). Senior vocational high schools are similar to normal senior high schools but place a heavier emphasis on practical and vocational skills.
They offer courses in areas such as agriculture, industry, business, maritime studies, marine products, medicine, nursing, home economics, drama and arts (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Junior high school graduates can also opt to follow a five-year junior college program while senior high school graduates can also decide to enter a junior college, although they only need to follow a two-year course. Most junior high school graduates currently take the Basic
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Competency Test before being admitted to a specific senior high school (Chou & Ho, 2007).
Students can also be admitted to a school based on recommendations or after registering and being assigned. The effect of this system is that a major streaming exercise takes place between lower and upper secondary education, dividing students into different academic tracks based on their test results (Chou & Ho, 2007). The transition of upper secondary education to tertiary education is much the same as the one from lower onto upper secondary education, leading to students to strive “to score highly on the MPPCS [Multiroute Promotion Program for College-bound Seniors] at the end of their third year in order to attend
universities” (Chou & Ho, 2007, p. 360).
Class sizes at the junior secondary level average at 33 students, senior secondary education has an average of 40 students, and senior vocational secondary education 42 (教育 部，2010a).
Relevant to current compulsory education is the recent „nine-year integrated
curriculum‟ reform. This, controversial, curriculum reform was implemented in 2001. One of the principles identified by the government for this curriculum reform being: “[t]o encourage the development of individuality and the exploration of one‟s potentials” (教育部，2003), which shows a focus on the individual student. This recent reform entailed integrating the six grades of primary education and the three grades of junior secondary education into a nine-year continuous curriculum. To achieve this, the following goals and objectives were developed (教育部，2003):
- Integration of seven study fields: language arts, health and physical education, social studies, arts and humanities, mathematics, technology and science, and integrative
activities (of all of these, language arts take about 20 – 30% of the total number of classes) - Cultivation of ten core competences: ability to understand self and develop individual
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ability to express, communicate, and share; ability to respect others, care for the
community, and facilitate teamwork; ability to learn culture and understand international affairs; ability to plan, organize, and practice; ability to use technology and information;
ability to explore something actively and conduct research; foster independent thinking and problem solving ability
- Identification of six major topics related to human development: information technology, environment, gender, human rights, career development, and home economics
Outside the formal education system, there is also a big market for private cram schools where students receive extra lessons in such subjects as English, math, science etc. A student‟s opportunity to attend these kinds of schools largely depends on the family‟s social-economic status. Therefore, “family educational resources and going to cram school make a major difference in patterns of school success” (Chou & Ho, 2007).
The formal Taiwanese school environment emphasizes discipline and uniforms are commonly worn by students up to the senior secondary education level. Mandarin Chinese is the only official language in school education but Taiwanese, Hakka, and indigenous
languages are also finding their way into the educational system (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Undergraduate education in Taiwan normally takes four years. Graduate programs can take up anywhere between one to four years while post-graduate programs are between two and seven years long.
In the year 2009, the enrolment rate for compulsory education was 97.95% while the total enrolment of upper secondary education was 92.35% (教育部統計處，2010b). That same year, the Taiwanese government spent 4.81% of Taiwan‟s GDP on education
(Government Information Office, 2010). In 2006, of the total educational budget, 13.11%
was spent on junior secondary education, 11.26% on senior secondary education, 5.66% on
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senior vocational secondary education, and 0.64% on special education schools (Ministry of Education, 2007). The literacy rate in Taiwan was 97.91% in 2009 (Government Information Office, 2010).
An overview of the Taiwanese education system can be found in Appendix A.