TAIPEI, Nov 5 — Taiwan’s flourishing cram school industry has come under scrutiny after a school in the island’s south was probed recently for alleged child abuse.
International Mind Research Institute in Tainan city was investigated by the authorities two weeks ago after parents complained that it made their children swallow fire and step on glass purportedly to help them conquer their fears.
The case has not only raised questions about whether enough was being done to regulate the schools, but also Taiwanese parents’ blind faith in them.
Educationists say this underlines the pressure faced by students in Taiwan’s exam-focused educational system and the failure of education reforms.
“Parents want their children to do well but don’t know how to do it. They believe advertisements about classes that can bring out their children’s potential,” said National Taiwan Normal University education professor Wu Wu-tien.
The parents drawn to International Mind Research Institute — many of whom were highly educated — were willing to pay as much as NT$300,000 (RM31,500) for half a year’s lessons for two children, reported Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper.
Such attitudes have helped fuel a rise in the number of tuition schools from 1,200 in 1997 to 7,000 in 2006, wrote sociologist Liu Jeng from Tung-hai University in western Taiwan’s Taichung city, in a research paper.
This does not include ventures which are not registered as tuition or enrichment schools but still offer such classes. International Mind Research Institute, for instance, was registered as a business consultancy agency and not a school.
Seen as something undesirable in the 1970s, tuition has since come to be accepted as a part of life in Taiwan, Liu told The Straits Times.
His studies have found that 73 per cent of secondary school students and 70 per cent of primary and pre-school children receive some form of tuition. On average, students pay at least NT$7,000 a month for tuition in two subjects.
A survey by the non-profit Child Welfare League Foundation found that three in four children attend cram school. And about four in 10 are still in such a class past 7pm on an average day.
Wu said that educational reforms, such as the diversification of the syllabus, started in the 1990s, have, ironically, made things worse.
He cited the example of schools being allowed to choose textbooks for a subject instead of all adhering to the same one as in the past. “But people worry that they are not doing enough if they study just one textbook (chosen by their school). They end up going for tuition, as the cram schools can collate the key points from different textbooks,” he
noted.
Liu’s research found that tuition does help enhance the academic performance of students. But Prof Wu worries that excessive drilling might kill off students’ appetite for learning and also affect their psychological well-being.
Still, most observers believe that tuition schools are here to stay.
“Today, nobody in Taiwan will strongly object to sending children for tuition. Even if we change the school promotion or admission system, that won’t change the reliance on tuition,” said Dr Liu. — The Straits Times
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