The Ministry of Education should return to Its Main Duties

The Ministry of Education should return to Its Main Duties
China Times editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
December 11, 2007

Ministry of Education officials announced yesterday that 15 year old students from the ROC participated in the OECD sponsored "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA). Among the 57 participating countries, they scored first in mathematics and fourth in science. These were brilliant achievements, they said. They hoped to take advantage of this to alleviate public anxieties about constructive mathematics and the nine year curriculum. Meanwhile, everyone's attention was focused on the Ministry of Education's demolition of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall "The Golden Mean, the Way of Righteousness" name plaque, and the Ministry of Education Chief Secretary's inflammatory political rhetoric. For a while, the Ministry of Education was on the frontlines of the Blue vs. Green battleground. Faced with hundreds of unsolved educational problems, the government agency charged with education was dedicating all its energy to political campaigning on behalf of the ruling party. How is one to rationalize that?

PISA is considered the International Olympics of education. The government often points to it as a political achievement, even as part of its "educational reform" campaign. It expends an enormous amount of time and energy congratulating itself on its successes. By contrast, officials and educators in Hong Kong and Singapore, which have also gotten good marks, immediately compare their scores against their original targets, discover problems, inform the public about the nation's educational weaknesses and recommend the necessary remedies. By means of self-criticism, they continually improve the quality of education. Meanwhile, our own educators are often busy campaigning for the ruling DPP, giving people the uneasy feeling they are neglecting their basic educational responsibilities.

For example, last month Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng touted the achievements of "educational reform," citing the Swiss World Economic Forum's (WEF) favorable ranking of our government's health and elementary education achievements (incidence of infectious diseases and elementary student enrollment). He failed utterly however to mention other issues related to student health and educational quality such as: physical fitness, nutrition, adequate sleep, physical growth rates, and incidence of myopia, according to which we rank behind other Asian nations. Due to insufficient sleep, nutritional imbalances, and lack of exercise, our elementary and middle school students' running abilities don't even compare to Japan's!

In fact, Taiwan students' positive PISA scores in mathematics and science may be the result of 15 year olds (9th and 10th graders) spending long hours in class, enrolling in extracurricular "cram schools," losing sleep, enduring pressures to make the grade, forsaking their personal dreams, suppressing their self-doubts, and putting their noses to the grindstone. Yet none of these problems have motivated advocates of "educational reform" to change their minds, to ask themselves why students prefer to read books not on the curriculum, why interest in mathematics and science is dropping, or why the academic scores of 30,000 fifteen year olds are increasingly polarized.

Everyone knows the answers to these questions. Even Ministry of Education officials acknowledge that the academic ranking of students on Taiwan is unrelated to class attendance figures. School hours are long (including supplementary classes). Children on Taiwan are good at taking tests, but few of them stand out in any specialty. The average person does not like to read. The Council for Cultural Affairs has learned that people over the age of 15 seldom read books. Forty percent of those who do, read only one book every few months. Half have not bought either a book or a magazine in six months. Forty-six percent of an average child's leisure activity involves playing video games on a PC or watching television. That's why according to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), another literacy index, our fourth grade students' reading ability badly trail students in Hong Kong and Singapore. Nearly one in four never reads after school, far lower than the international average.

In addition, according to a survey by Commonwealth magazine, nearly seven out of ten students in the fifth and sixth grades, attend after school programs or "cram schools." Five out of ten spend over 6,000 NT a month for tutoring. Two out of ten receive tutoring in up to four subjects. By junior high, their childrens' education and its attendant costs have become parents' heaviest burden. Nearly seven out of ten junior high students are enrolled in "cram schools." One in four families must spend over 6,000 NT a month in additional tuition. Over half of all families must sacrifice their family's entertainment allowance to pay for their childrens' junior high educations. The "Taiwan Education Panel Survey" (TEPS) conducted by the Academia Sinica discovered that by the ninth grade (15 year olds), as many as 97% of all students in both urban and rural regions were enrolled in "cram schools." By high school the number was approximately five out of ten. Under such pressure cooker conditions, it's no wonder elementary and high school students seek relief by watching televison and playing video games. They don't read books. Those books they read are textbooks or reference books. Another index of student aptitude, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), in contrast with PISA, revealed that elementary and high school students generally dislike mathematics and science and lack self-confidence. This shows that children on Taiwan only know how to take tests.

The Ministry of Education has successfully demolished "The Golden Mean, the Way of Righteousness" name plaque. The garrulous Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Education is currently basking in his Fifteen Minutes of Fame. Green camp political candidates have even presented him with garlands. Few officials receive such adulation. Isn't it time for the good minister to quit while he's ahead, and return to his job of education? Otherwise, he may win his political struggle, but Taiwan's next generation will be the losers. Where is the honor in that?

中時電子報
中國時報 　2007.12.11
教育部該回到本業了吧
中時社論

　教育部官員日前向國人宣布十五歲學生在參加ＯＥＣＤ主辦的「學生基礎素養國際研究計畫」（ＰＩＳＡ），在五十七個參與國中數學成績第一、科學第四，成績斐然，希望藉此一掃以往國人對建構式數學與九年一貫課程的疑慮。然而在此同時，整個社會注目焦點，全都在教育部主導拆除中正紀念堂「大中至正」牌匾，以及教育部主祕挑釁的政治語言，教育部頃刻間站到藍綠政治衝突的第一線，面對百廢待舉的教育問題，教育主管單位用心最力竟是在配合選舉造勢，能怎麼說呢？

　素有教育奧林匹亞之稱的ＰＩＳＡ等國際評比，國內經常把他們當成施政業績，甚至奉為教改成就加以宣傳，甚少在事後認真評估與研究。與同獲佳績的香港與新加坡相比，他們的政府與學界不但在成績公布後，快速分析各種評估指標、發掘問題，並會具體告訴民眾本國教育的強、弱之處，甚至將採取哪些補救措施等。藉由這些深入的檢討，繼續提升教育的品質。相形之下，我們的教育主管當局則往往忙於政治服務，予人荒疏教育本務之感。

　再例如，上個月杜部長曾以瑞士世界經濟論壇（ＷＥＦ）對我國在健康與初等教育（傳染病等及小學生入學比率）的優異排名，而誇讚教改有成，但卻完全不提在其它若干真正關係到學生健康與教育品質等項目，如：體適能、營養、睡眠、長高速度與近視比例等指標，我國在亞洲國家的排名都落後甚多，甚至因學童普遍睡眠不足、營養不均衡與缺乏運動，中小學生的體適能差到連跑步都比不上日本孩子！

　事實上，台灣學生在ＰＩＳＡ數學與科學能獲得佳績，很可能是靠十五歲（國三與高一階段）的孩子超長上課時數、課外補習、犧牲睡眠、忍受升學壓力、不顧興趣、缺乏信心之下勉強而學的結果。而這些問題都未因推動教改而有所改變！否則國內學生就不該不愛閱讀課外書，甚至對數學與科學的興趣逐年下降，更何況每年有卅萬「十五歲」考生在國中基測上，愈來愈明顯地出現學習成績兩極化現象。

　這些問題其實大家心裡都有數，因為連教育部官員都承認台灣學生不論上課的日數和時數都排在世界前幾名。因為上課時間長（包括補習），台灣孩子考試很厲害，但在各領域傑出人才卻不多，尤其一般人不愛閱讀。文建會調查發現：十五歲以上民眾從不看書或幾個月才看一次的比例將近四成，半年內不曾買書或雜誌者占半數以上，而四十六％小朋友的休閒活動是玩電腦、看電視。所以在另一項國際閱讀成就的研究（ＰＩＲＬ），我國小四學童的識字與閱讀能力，成績遠遠落在香港、新加坡之後，且近四分之一放學後幾乎從不閱讀，遠低於國際平均水準。

　此外，根據天下雜誌調查發現，小學裡中、高年級生有近七成參加安親班或補習班，其中五成每月花超過六千元補習，甚至有兩成補四科以上。到了國中，孩子的課業和經濟負擔成為親子間的最痛，其中近七成國中生正在補習，四分之一家庭每月負擔六千元以上補習費，超過半數家庭為了國中孩子的教育而排擠家庭娛樂或生活開銷。同時中研院「台灣教育長期追蹤資料庫」調查也發現，到了國三（十五歲）不分城鄉，高達九成七補習，高中職約五成。在此種高壓教育環境下，中小學生變得「愛看電視、玩電腦，不看書，要看也只看教科書、參考書」，也就不足為奇了！而相對於ＰＩＳＡ的優異數理成績表現，另一份學生學科能力測驗及教育研究計畫調查（ＴＩＭＳＳ）卻發現，台灣國中小學生普遍不喜歡數學、科學，也缺乏自信心，顯示台灣的孩子其實是「比較會考試」而已！

　是的，教育部確實成功地拆掉了「大中至正」的牌匾，教育部主祕就靠著幾句伶牙俐齒的政治語言，短時期就在全國爆紅，還接受綠營候選人的獻花，這般的風光也沒幾個部會能比得上，此刻是不是該見好就收，回到教育本業上了？否則，政治鬥爭贏了，台灣下一代卻是輸家，又有什麼值得光彩的呢？