Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday that the government will continue to push forward educational reforms and diversify the national education system.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the new National Science Education Center building in Taipei, Chen said that educational reforms started to be implemented 10 years ago to cope with the increasing international competition and the emerging knowledge-based economy.
The reforms are aimed at making education more diversified, more open and more flexible, paying more attention to the cultivation of students' thinking abilities and their capacity to solve problems, Chen noted.
Touting the achievements made by his administration over the past almost four years in this field, the president said that openness and diversification, fairness and justice, and pursuit of excellence are the three core values of the measures taken by the government on education reforms.
The government is expected to create an excellent educational environment for high school and vocational education within five years and to implement 12-year compulsory education system in the academic year 2008, Chen added.
Stressing that education should be a central concern for any nation, Chen added that it should also be apolitical.
The president claimed that his administration has attached the greatest importance to education and that he has never interfered in the promotion and implementation of education programs.
Discussions on education reforms should not be distorted and used as a means of political struggle, he said.