Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian promised Thursday that his administration will not phase out vocational high schools, saying that students should have a wider range of options in Taiwan's diversified and pluralistic society.
Chen made the remarks at the opening of a two-day national conference being held in central Taichung, which brought the heads of vocational high schools across Taiwan together.
In an effort to allay their concern over the issue, Chen said vocational high schools are not affiliated with normal high schools and stressed that the government in turn will devote more energy and resources to develop vocational education facilities instead of abolishing them.
The government should build a good environment in which Taiwan's children and youth should be provided with more options and channels to develop their interests, potential and dispositions, the president said, expressing the hope that the current meeting will help create more favorable conditions for the normal development of elementary school and junior high school education. "Taiwan's education environment must be more flexible and multitudinous, and a sound and high-quality vocational high school system plays a key role in the nation's educational spectrum, " he concluded.