Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian urged experts and educators who attended the National Educational Development Conference Saturday to help outline strategies and prospects for the country's educational development.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the meeting, Chen said that Taiwan has instituted education reform for more than 10 years and that his administration will not shirk its responsibility for the faults and problems that have cropped up over the past three-plus years. His administration will be responsible for future development, he added.
He criticized the former ruling party, the Kuomintang, for shirking its responsibility to address problems created by the reform policies but thanked government officials, individuals and groups who have contributed their efforts and intelligence to the reform program, including Lee Yuan-tseh, president of the Academia Sinica, the country's highest research institute, and all former ministers of education.
The education reform was formulated within a framework of a distorted educational system developed among middle and elementary schools, Chen noted, adding that controversy still surrounds the nine-year-integrated course, diversified versions of text books based on a single guideline and other teaching reforms that were implemented.
The problems are rooted in the pressure of exams for school entrance and the resolution of this will be key to putting Taiwan's education back on track, the president stressed.
In preparation for the conference, Chen said he called a special meeting Sept. 5 with Premier Yu Shyi-kun, advisors to the president, Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun and other government officials to exchange opinions on a great variety of topics regarding education reform, including diversified channels for school entrance, university tuition fees, the nine-year-integrated course, the quality of teachers, the cultivation and recruitment of teachers, text books, transformation of vocational high schools and the focus of the education ministry's future plans.
Noting that various suggestions introduced in the meeting will be discussed in the two-day conference, Chen encouraged the participants of the conference to present their opinions and ideas to help create an environment and system of education that is in line with the needs of society.