Economic prosperity has enabled most families in Taiwan to provide a better education for their children, causing an educational boom and a shortage of classrooms. Every family wants its children to squeeze through the door to a higher education. To ensure success in the entrance examinations, therefore, parents used to send their children to supplementary schools for "cram" lessons, and in the process, impaired the healthy development of the nation's young people. To remedy this situation, President Chiang Kai-shek ordered an extension of the compulsory free education system from six years to nine. Because the students were relieved of the pressure to taking entrance examinations, they began to enjoy outdoor life.

In Taiwan today, more than a quarter of the population is in school. In the junior high schools, girls are as active as boys, organizing gymnastics, ball games and track teams, and taking part in frequent interschool competitions. Every school has a fife and drum band to lead parades when there is a big occasion. Only normal college graduates are qualified to teach in junior high schools, the majority of which are operated by the government.

In the junior high schools, the students are divided into vocational classes and higher-education classes. Trade and crafts are emphasized in vocational classes, and arrangements are made for students to work in factories to prepare them for life after they graduate. Those who want to enter senior high schools find that English, science and math are emphasized, while girl students are taught cooking, sewing and nursing. The goal of junior high school education is to achieve a balance between physical and intellectual development, and a sense of moral and social responsibility. Teaching methods have been modernized in recent years, and now most schools are equipped with a closed-circuit television system and the teachers make programs themselves. Because land is scarce, three or four-floor concrete buildings are used for classrooms. The architecture is modern and functional; classrooms are spacious, well ventilated and lit; and the design was worked out by the government in accordance with President Chiang's instruction.

October 24 was the founding anniversary of the Chinhua Girls' Junior Middle School in Taipei. There was a big celebration to mark the occasion, which include an athletic meeting, a concert and an exhibition. Before the athletic meeting began, the school principal reviewed a student parade, followed by a mass exercise and group dancing. About a thousand students were divided into several units to form different patterns while dancing to the music. The period of junior high school education is three years, after which graduates are required to pass entrance examinations before they are admitted to senior high schools. Administration is in the charge of county and city governments. Last year, Taiwan had 607 public junior high schools, enrolling 1,014,549 students, of whom 464,643 were girls. There were 319,251 junior high graduates, 60 per cent of whom entered senior high schools.

Taiwan also has a few private junior high schools. Because all of them specialize in a particular subject, they can co-exist with the tuition- free public junior high schools. Most of these private schools stress concentrated studies, so their graduates usually perform better in entrance examinations for senior high schools. The Kuangjen Middle School, operated by the Catholic authorities, for instance, specializes in music, and runs an experimental music class, in which particularly gifted students are enrolled. The students spend two hours a day playing instruments, and each of them has an individual session with the teacher every week. Al the teachers are graduates of college music departments, and, as a result, the Kuangjen orchestra is famed throughout Taiwan, and has made many tours abroad to perform for overseas Chinese and promote people-to-people relationships. In general, the students of the musical classes are as good as those in regular classes in their general studies.