"It's not that textbooks these days aren't any good, it's just that they're not good enough, and there's no room for choice," says Ou Yung-sheng, a professor and dean of studies at the Provincial Taipei Teachers' College.
If textbooks can be diversified and a certain standard of quality maintained, so that people have more choice, then education will be more lively and multifarious, and that will be of greater assistance in a child's mental and moral growth.
But what qualities make for a good textbook? Most people have no idea, it seems.
Hwang Jeng-jye, a professor in the Graduate Institute of Education at National Taiwan Normal University, indicates that correct contents, a logical order of arrangement, a simple and continuous pedagogical sequence, clear chapter aims, and easily understood illustrations and text are all necessary prerequisites. In addition, fitting in with the needs of society is also important.
Be that as it may, the real readers of textbooks are students, so making them understandable to children is the most important part of all.
Ever since the government permitted the editing and printing of textbooks by the private sector, publishers have been striving to write textbooks with clear, substantive contents in easy-to-read language that children can better accept.
Li Wan-chi, general manager of Kang Ho Publishing Co., the firm that has published the most titles since deregulation, says that his company, rather than spouting a lot of exalted theory, has sought only to make the layout, illustrations, and design of each book as lively and vivid as possible and the subject matter and writing as close as possible to students' real-life needs.
What publishers are most unhappy about now are two remaining government restrictions on the number of pages in textbooks and on their price. "It's asking a person to move about freely while you're squeezing his neck," Li says.
The authorities in charge explain that the restrictions are intended to prevent students from being overburdened. Limiting the cost is based on considerations of economics, and limiting the pages on those of pedagogy. Both restrictions have been set forth according to educational principles and past experience.
But publishers don't accept that reasoning. They say the goal of privatization is to make textbooks more effective, lively, and open. The economic and teaching burdens that result should be decided by schools, teachers, and the market and not by government authorities.
Here an important question arises: Just what should the price of a textbook be?
The textbooks used in the compulsory educational systems of the advanced countries of Europe, North America, and Japan are all supplied to students free of charge. And they used to be free in the ROC as well, until the educational reforms of September 1968.
How much of a burden would the government bear each year if it were to supply free textbooks to all the primary and secondary students in the country? Figured at an average annual cost of NT$500 per student, with the 1.05 million students in high school and 2.4 million in elementary school, the sum should come to around NT$1.5 billion.
The government now spends a total of around NT$150 billion a year on education, including about NT$5 billion for the national universities. Whether an additional NT$1.5 billion is a little or a lot and should or should not be spent are questions that have no easy answers.
[Picture Caption]
A good textbook will have a good effect on students. Here a designer at a private publishing firm rushes to complete a text-book in time for school openings this September.
There are many links in the chain of producing a textbook, among which a n important one is review by government personnel. Here a reviewer at the National Insti tute of Compilation and Translation explains how textbooks are revised.
Sparking a child's creativity through lively, active teaching methods is one of the most basic aims for a textbook.
Activities can be an extension of textbook materials. This is a summer school student's activity schedule.
Besides the books in their satchels, the natural surroundings are another important influence on students.
Reading, writing, and doing homework are the center of a child's life. Textbooks that kids are tested on are always a big headache.
What will descendants of the aborigines think about the story about Wu Feng? Shown is Tawu Elementary School in Wutai Hsiang. （photo by Arthur Cheng）
Nobel Prize winner Yuan T. Lee is a modern-day hero to many high school students on Taiwan. Some people think it's all right for textbooks to encourage that kind of "hero worship.".
To avoid a sermoniziing tone, the new books no longer say "older brother teaches younger brother." But some people wonder what's wrong with older brothers and sisters teaching their younger siblings.
The stereotyped sex roles in textbooks do not fit well with reality. Shown below is the lesson used until last year in which "mother gets up early to do the sweeping.".
