Focus turns to education at 2nd presidential policy forum

Taipei, Dec. 26 (CNA) Taiwan's second televised presidential policy forum Tuesday saw opposition candidates take aim at the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) record on education.

Tuesday's format saw the three candidates for president -- the Taiwan People's Party Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), ruling Democratic Progressive Party nominee Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) -- each given 10-minutes to present their policies, followed by 10 minutes for rebuttal.

Opening proceedings, the TPP's Ko said that the nation's "underperforming" education system had failed to provide equal opportunities to children from low-income households.

According to Ko, a recent study had shown that children from privileged backgrounds were six times more likely than those from low-income families to be admitted to National Taiwan University (NTU), the country's leading institute of higher learning.

Ko also criticized the DPP's "Bilingual 2030" policy, which he said had caused "widespread panic among teachers, students and parents alike" due to a lack of proper planning, qualified teachers and inadequate teaching materials.

To address these shortcomings, Ko proposed training bilingual teachers through various channels, including government-funded programs, as well as making English textbooks available to students for free until the ninth grade to help bridge the urban-rural education divide.

The TPP candidate then reaffirmed an earlier commitment to extend compulsory education from nine to 13 years.

Lai, meanwhile, said that many of the education policies proposed by Ko "have already been implemented by the DPP or will be soon."

Lai noted that the DPP government had already announced plans to make tuition free for all high schools and vocational schools from January 2024.

The incumbent vice president said that this was part of the DPP's commitment to providing equal opportunities to all regardless of their socioeconomic background.

Lai added that the DPP had also introduced annual subsidies of NT$35,000 (US$1,087) for tuition and miscellaneous expenses to private college students, with additional waivers of NT$15,000-NT$20,000 available for those from low-income families.

The KMT's Hou criticized Lai for failing to present such education policies earlier during his previous post as premier from 2017 to 2019 and since becoming vice president in May 2020.

"Everybody knows that students in Taiwan are facing hardship [to pay for their tuition] -- so why did you only introduce such a policy when there is a presidential election coming up?" Hou said.

The KMT nominee has previously pledged to pay tuition loan interest for college students and graduates if elected, as well as raise subsidies for those enrolled at private universities from NT$35,000 a year to NT$50,000 from the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Tuesday afternoon's forum was the second televised policy presentation for presidential candidates contesting Taiwan's Jan. 13, 2024 presidential election.

The first forum was held on Dec. 20, while the third will take place at 7 p.m. on Dec. 28, according to the CEC.