President Ma Ying-jeou met with Seoul National University Honorary Professor Kim Shin-il at the Presidential Office on the morning of May 3. The president extended a cordial welcome to Professor Kim on behalf of the government and people of the ROC on his visit to Taiwan.
The president noted that Professor Kim previously served as Korea's Deputy Prime Minister, and that he has made enormous contributions in the promotion of lifelong education in Korea. President Ma commented that in addition to Sweden and the UK, Korea is one of the world's most successful nations in promoting lifelong education. Professor Kim has made a big contribution to the outstanding achievements of Korea in this regard, the president said.
President Ma stated that Taiwan established its first community college in the Wenshan District of Taipei in 1998. He said that he continued to promote this policy during his tenure as Taipei mayor. Within a four-year period, he said, each administrative district in Taipei set up a community college, and Taipei became the city in Taiwan with the largest number of people enrolled in community colleges.
President Ma said that Taipei City at present has about 50,000 people enrolled in community colleges each year, and that some 220,000 people throughout Taiwan have graduated from such institutions. Over the past 12 years, the mushroom growth of community colleges throughout Taiwan has been quite impressive, he pointed out, but lifelong education in Taiwan has run into a bottleneck. Taipei City, for instance, provides each community college with NT$3 million to NT$4 million in subsidies annually. However, budgets for these institutions in other cities and counties throughout Taiwan are less than one-tenth of what they are in Taipei. Community colleges in those areas have to make do with extremely limited manpower and materials, so there is quite a bit of room for improvement, he said.
The president remarked, however, that the government in the coming few months will institute major reforms in this area, and hopes to forge a consensus on the issue at a national education conference slated for August. The president said it is hoped that policies regarding increased manpower and resources for community colleges will be ironed out, enabling those institutions to receive ample funding. He said that the joint efforts of experts in lifelong education nationwide will help to promote the objective of lifelong learning.
President Ma stressed that lifelong education is indispensable in a knowledge-based economy, and is an important asset for Taiwan. He said that this visit to Taiwan by Professor Kim will provide us an opportunity to learn from Korea, and added that he hopes in the future Taiwan will join the ranks of advanced nations in lifelong education.
Professor Kim expressed his admiration of President Ma’s longstanding attention to and support for the development of lifelong education. He said he hopes that in the course of future interaction the two nations will enhance their cooperation not only in the promotion of lifelong education, but also in other fields.
Professor Kim was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Education Minister Wu Ching-ji to meet President Ma. Also in attendance was National Security Council Advisor Dr. Philip Y. M. Yang.