Military Instructors at Educational Establishments to Be Phased Out in Five Years

 Military Instructors at Educational Establishments to Be Phased Out in Five Years

 Sources: All Taipei newspapers

 August 10, 2016

Deputy Education Minister Tsai Ching-hwa (蔡清華) stated yesterday that the Education Ministry (MOE) was mapping out a plan to phase out all military instructors from universities and senior high schools within five years. 

Currently, Taiwan has about 3,500 military instructors, 900 in colleges and universities and over 2,600 in senior and vocational high schools. Deputy Education Minister Tsai noted that 14 universities already introduced a campus security mechanism to replace military instructors, so the MOE hoped to implement similar measures at other universities and senior and vocational high schools. 

Tsai stated that with regard to those military instructors who were not yet eligible for retirement, the MOE would propose supplementary measures, including transfers back to the Ministry of National Defense, sitting for national civil service examinations, sitting for examinations for job opportunities in the Veterans Affairs Council under the Executive Yuan, or obtaining teacher’s certificates for national defense courses. He pledged that “the MOE will definitely guarantee their working rights and interests.” 

All military instructors are officers of the Armed Forces being assigned to the schools through the MOE’s Department of Military Education. 

The public has varied opinions on the MOE’s plan. Most universities and senior high schools do not want military instructors to be removed from campuses. Parent associations also expressed concerns about campus security in the future if all military instructors should be removed from campuses, and they hoped that the MOE would at least consider retaining military instructors at senior and vocational high schools, adding that military instructors had always been the first ones to provide assistance when any accidents occurred involving students. 

However, student groups applauded the MOE’s plan, saying that “the last vestiges of authoritarian rule should be eliminated from educational institutions as soon as possible.”

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