Earlier this year, an article about a Taiwanese story artist working at Pixar sparked discussions on the deep-rooted education system in Taiwan. “We all had expectations before coming to college,” Jane said. If you want to change the environment we have to start from ourselves,” she said. “I don’t think most students want to be doctors because they want to help others. “We study for exams and most of the time we don’t know why we have to learn so deep into every subject. Students experience and develop through stages of education, but when asked about it, most people remain silent or are confused for a while, like something hovering in the dead air. The work is piled on at the beginning, in order to weed out the weak and the inferior and the lazy. Partly for this reason, Japan is the most indebted country in the world . I asked her whether she thought it was problem when good students want to get into medical school regardless of their interests. The media does, and parents of course. Suddenly we were all quiet. I mean, I felt that I could actually go mad a week before the exam,” Jane said. “I guess. I mean before high school I would not think that getting into medical school would be considered impressive. All we are taught before is pursuing a correct answer, but in real life there is no such thing as a correct answer,” Jane said. No one is going to give you guidelines now.”. This, however, is a decades-long problem that affects almost every school in Taiwan. “However, for me, many classes are similar to high school in terms of teaching. Instead, the breadth and depth of the curriculum results in many students feeling frustrated by the heavy burden and discouraging test results, which stymies their growth rather than promoting it. “Due to previous education, we are not used to learn actively when exams are the main motivation for studying. Each semester is 18 weeks long, and students take part in other activities during summer and winter break. The average math score of 32 percent should be enough to alert the educational authorities and the general public and place renewed focus on this issue. Wherein lies the problem? Prior to lifting martial law in 1987, Taiwan experienced three decades of rapid industrialization with little … If this situation is not resolved, our educational goals will not be met and we will hurt our students in our eagerness to assist them. “Perhaps one day when we become parents, we will exert our expectations and perspective on our children as well, but eventually we have to compromise, because we love them, and we just want our children to be happy.”. Tsai, Den-Mo; Shih, Yew-Sheng. Problems can arise because Taiwanese children are unfamiliar with the more relaxed and open style of foreign teachers. Jessie Yang currently studies in Hong Kong. The problems with education in Taiwan may be complicated, but when we decide to recognize and speak about them, perhaps we can start to make a little difference. But I think when you got into high school, especially those good ones, you would be influenced by what teachers say and the atmosphere that celebrates certain rationales and expectations,” Jane said. Probably because I am a science major, so there is more one-way teaching instead of interaction,” she said. We stood up to greet our friend Rachel, who is currently a sophomore in Taichung. She blogs at http://jessieyangblog.wordpress.com. But most of the time we are quiet and no one spoke about their opinions.”. “There are problems, but we cannot solely compare it to other countries because there is no such thing as a perfect system.”. “I don’t think I can truly devote to something just because I really like it. Since 2008, the percentage of high school graduates entering university has exceeded 95 percent. “I don’t think I regret it,” she says. This, however, is a decades-long problem that affects almost every school in Taiwan. In Taiwan, however, students have eight classes per day five or six days per week, carry a lot of books, go to cram school in the evenings and on weekends and have more homework than they can finish. “But I think starting from evaluation criteria and teaching styles in courses would be a good start. With a view to the Most of the time we don’t know what we are studying for and whether we like it or not.”. Of course I do have some thoughts, but I was too afraid I might say something stupid or something wrong, so I said I didn’t know,” she said. “So even when we have more freedom to explore now, our thoughts are somehow narrowed and we don’t know what to do,” she said. Perhaps we also cannot really explain it. Rachel interjected, “Last semester I took a jazz music introduction class. As the moon became bright in the dark sky, we said goodbye to each other. When it comes to test results, there are few mid to high results, and many fail. “You know, it is their first time being parents, so they are also learning,” Rachel said. This reaches a crescendo in the high schools: but notice the colleges -- they are nowhere near as good as their counterparts in the US. Jane said she was touched when her mother called her a week ago and told her that she would support what Jane decided to do. Always testing. School closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have shed a light on numerous issues affecting access to education, as well as broader socio-economic issues. I am afraid of not getting jobs, my future, and salaries, and whether a diploma could actually get me anywhere. Under the leadership of ASEAN and China, most observers did not expect the RCEP to provide a high degree of openness, and the announced agreement lives up to these expectations, containing few surprises. We were still without a conclusion to that question as we took a walk on campus. “Well, for a time it was a lot of pressure.