Mode of education in Taiwan

Education is a key value in Taiwanese society and it is reflected by school attendance and graduation rate with elementary school having almost 100% of the places filled with students at its appropriate age group. Education in Taiwan is high-quality, teacher-focus and exam driven, the system is not designed to produce highly creative, original and free-thinking students but produces students that have extensive knowledge in history, geography, maths and science.

The children begin an arduous climb through the education system at the age of four to five when their parents enrol them into the public kindergartens. Then at the age of six, they enter elementary schools to establish their educational foundations from the first to the sixth grade. After graduating from the sixth grade, students proceed to junior high schools to complete their education to the ninth grade. After that, there are three general paths available for the graduated students basing on their standard exaministration by the end of the ninth grade. The high academically performing students can gain entrance into one of the academic high schools. Whereas less academically talented students can choose between a three year secondary vocational school that emphasise in the technical field or choose a programme run by a five year junior college and emerged as a highly trained technician.

Gaining entrance to an academic high school is the direct way to social prestige and possible entrance to the best universities. The most prestigious school in whole of Taiwan is the National Taiwan University which assures a person high success in professional fields and in government bureaucracy. This leads to many students enrolling into cram schools which are after-hours and night schools offering an even more rapid flow of information for acquisition and review geared towards high performance on the entrance exams that greatly affects the Taiwanese child. Education is seen as an investment in the future when the child has to take care of their parents. The medical profession and university-level teaching careers are the preferred end results, though high-level business qualifications and technological science degrees are increasingly popular.

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Cram school

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National Taiwan University