Education in Taiwan

Abstract

S INCE 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist government was forced to take refuge on Taiwan, the island has witnessed remarkable progress not only in economic, social, and political development, but also in education. Taiwan is worth studying in this respect, for it is now the only society that preserves in considerable measure the way of life characterizing pre-1949 China, whereas the mainland has been undergoing a cultural and political revolution under Communist inspiration. Taiwan has an area of 14,000 square miles, nearly double that of Israel, and a population of 16 million, larger than Australia. Apart from a tiny aboriginal population, the people 'are all Chinese. Taiwanese natives constitute 80 percent of the total, while the rest are the mainlanders and their native-born children and grandchildren. The majority of the mainlanders migrated to the island from various parts of China in 1949, when the mainland was taken over by the Communists. The Japanese occupied Taiwan for a period of 50 years prior to the end of World War II in 1945, when the island was returned to China. As a result of this occupation, there existed a psychological gap between the native-born Taiwanese and the mainlanders. In addition to their own Chinese dialects, the natives then spoke chiefly the Japanese language; and to facilitate political socialization as well as the teaching-learning process, the national language (Mandarin) has been since 1945 the medium of instruction in all schools and colleges, and also the language of government. While the government has been dominated from the beginning by mainlanders (headed first by the late President Chiang Kai-shek, and now by President Yen Chia-kan and Premier Chiang Ching-kuo), most local government positions are held by Taiwanese natives. To narrow the psychological gap between natives and mainlanders still further, increasing numbers of natives have been appointed to high-