Rethinking the nature of ‘national basic education' reform in Taiwan: The promotion of social justice?

Rethinking the Nature of ‘National Basic Education’ Reform in Taiwan: The promotion of social justice?

'National Education’ has always been one of the most important aspects of education in Taiwan, as it is a part of the process of building a genuine foundation for the future hopes of the nation. Public education has been compulsory from primary school to junior high school since 1968. At the New Year of 2011, the president Mr. Ma Ying-jeou officially announced the inauguration of the so-called ‘promotion of twelve-year national basic education’, which policy had been controversially argued for and against since 1983. This education reform aims to extend compulsory education to cover senior secondary education and is rather complicated and takes nearly 30 years to be completed. This reform policy which claims to promote social justice for those disadvantaged students must seriously take into accounts the more complex problems like adaption of school district layouts, quality promotion of senior high schools and vocational senior high schools, bridging the learning gap between rural and urban high schools, financial support for underprivileged students, priorities setting of education budgets, and so on.

In this paper, the author will first of all clarify the concepts and aims of ‘national basic education’. Secondly, this analysis is carried on from a historical approach which traces the backgrounds of Taiwan’s cultural, economical, social and most importantly political, that is, democratic development, regarding with the policy of ‘promotion of twelve-year national basic education’. Thirdly, the author will present the historical development of this promotion of national education policy itself. Finally, the author tries to re-fix this policy’s position and ascertain its falseness and truthfulness for the struggle for social justice.