TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Amid Taiwan's low birth rate concerns, the central government is proposing plans to limit enrollment in 2024 by asking public and private high schools to receive one less student per class.
According to the Ministry of Education's current plans, high schools will receive 600 fewer students in total in 2024. This means that top public schools like Taipei First Girls' High School and Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School will receive 20 or so fewer students, respectively.
The new potential policy will also hit private schools hard.
Chang Han-yung, the principal of a local private high school remarked, "Because we don't receive any government subsidies, all our resources come from student registration fees. If you reduce the class size, then I will not have those students' registration fees."
He suggested that the government should allow schools to properly adjust registration fees are be more flexible on such limits to allow more room for private schools to survive. Chang remarked that though receiving fewer students per class now is acceptable, the government may still need to come up with long-term plans to address the issue.
In addition, with fewer students, some schools may be faced the possibility of shutting down or merging with another school.
In a desperate attempt to save their schools, some universities in Taiwan have even begun relaxing their requirements for being accepted into certain departments.
This means some schools are waiving English test results to attract more students to apply, which could lead to long-term problems for Taiwan’s higher education system. With Taiwan's birth rate continuing to drop annually, the government and the Ministry of Education need to work together to ensure the survival of Taiwan's higher education system.
