Community senior high
"Moving away from comparing students' school grades is basically the ultimate goal of open admission." Lin points out that at present only about 270,000 students enter senior high schools, and the number will drop to below 200,000 within five years. The large numbers experienced in the past of 300,000-400,000 students entering senior high will soon become merely a page in history, so we need to start thinking differently. "When supply exceeds demand, why should we worry about ranking? The point is that every-one should be able to enter a senior high school."
Lin Ching-sung, vice president of the National Teacher's Association, says that moving away from comparing students' grades, and getting rid of thresholds, are the ultimate goals of the OAP. But it may be initially difficult to gain acceptance for such new concepts. "Will the public accept them?" asks Lin. New ideas need time.
In recent years, some community senior highs have achieved sensational academic performance, and their quality is not at all inferior to that of the superior schools. This represents a ray of hope for open admissions. Last year, for example, four community senior highs in Tai-pei City-Da-tong, Zhong-lun, Li-shan and Da-zhi-were listed in the top 20 of the national ranking for university admission. In addition, admission scores based on the BCT measured between community senior highs show little variation, with only one or two points difference-some schools even have the same PR score.
Kang Tzong-huu points out that the resources, equipment and teachers' qualifications of senior high schools in Tai-pei City show only minor differences. Some have seen a significant increase in the number of students from their local regions. "People increasingly feel that it is silly to choose a senior high school whose admission score is only one or two points higher, but is much further away."
12-year compulsory education
Whether developing community senior high schools or the OAP, ul-ti-mately the aim is to achieve full implementation of 12-year compulsory education by 2014.
Two problems need to be solved in promoting 12-year compulsory education: one is the gap in tuition fees between public and private senior high schools; the other is choosing an appropriate system of senior-high admission. The former has been solved to some extent starting last year. Families with an annual household income below NT$1,140,000 pay the same fees for their children to attend private senior high as they would to attend a public school.
As for open admission, the problem remains unsolved. It seems that how school districts are delineated is the key to success for the OAP.
The Ministry of Education is planning open admission school districts, considering a plan based on county and city administrative districts, residential areas, and convenience of transport. However, if too many students apply to a senior high in a particular district, how should the school select its candidates? That issue hasn't yet been resolved. Some suggest that the College Entrance Examination Center should design a set of simple assessments to test and select applicants; others argue for the use of students' school grades as selection criteria; still others suggest using some sort of lottery draw. As yet, there is no clear answer.
But Kang disagrees with the suggestion of lottery methods. He says that "education and chance do not mix." When we really need some way of selecting students, the most likely way would be to use students' school grades, or perhaps the senior high schools could set up their own selection criteria.
Superior senior high?
The OAP has been under continuous revision since the policy was first implemented. Taipei City, where most superior senior high schools are situated, is more likely to be affected by future revisions.
Kang says that meetings have been planned, inviting education authorities from New Taipei City and Keelung City to discuss the issue. The plan is to integrate all existing admission programs, including those organized by the three authorities independently or cooperatively. Basically, community senior highs will expand the number of students recruited under the OAP. However, places for the top three senior high schools still need careful consideration.
In fact, in order to fulfill the goal of 12-year compulsory education, the MOE has been promoting various programs to upgrade the quality of community senior high schools: Quality Senior High Schools, and Equal Senior High Schools (the latter is designed to balance the number of senior highs across school districts). As for the few senior highs that maintain entrance exams, they have a so-called Specialized Senior High School Admission Program.
In the age of the joint entrance exam, superior senior highs had no need to worry about marketing themselves, and were able to easily attract elite students. However, after 12-year compulsory education is imple-mented, even superior schools will need to do some marketing, displaying their brand in order to maintain their star quality.
Since 2009, some senior high schools, including Jian-guo, the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, the National Experimental High School at Hsin-chu Science Park, Tai-chung First Senior High, Tai-nan First Senior High, and Kao-hsiung, have cooperated with universities. They have invited university lecturers to teach in schools, establishing elite science classes. In August this year, a further three senior high schools, including Wu-Ling (in Tao-yuan), Chang-hua and -Chiayi, are planning to participate in a similar scheme.
Xu Jian-guo, acting principal of Jian-guo High School, points out that one critical role of education is to foster national academic talent, so the pursuit of equality in education must take into account the possible impact on the development of individual students' potential ability. "Is every school capable of fostering the talent of gifted students?" "Can every school deal adequately with gifted students?" These are questions that need to be carefully considered.
According to Xu's plan, in addition to offering 10% of student places under the OAP, Jianguo will run specialized classes including mathematics, humanities and social studies, science, sports, and international study (for students who may want to study abroad in the future). The school will recruit "gifted" students instead of those with merely outstanding academic performance. Because student numbers in general are predicted to decrease sharply in the future due to falling birthrates, and also because of the limited number of gifted students, the school is planning to cut future enrollments from 31 classes in one grade to 18-21 classes, purely in order to be able to focus on recruiting gifted students.
Free from BCT?
If open admission only means being free of the BCT, then education minister Wu Ching-ji was correct when he said in the Legislative Yuan that after the full implementation of 12-year compulsory education, the BCT would become decreasingly important, and would probably eventually be abolished.
However, Lin Wen-hu says that since 2001, BCT results have functioned as a sort of student report card pro-vided to parents by the Ministry of Education, so the test shouldn't be abolished. Otherwise, how will parents be able to measure their children's results against others? "BCT is the victim. We cannot blame the system and then try to eliminate it." Lin stresses that BCT was originally designed as a basic abilities test, but has been misappropriated as a measurement for further studies.
Whether BCT lives or dies, for most students and parents, may not be the key issue; it is also too early to judge whether open admission will change the current educational situation for junior high schools. To the contrary, it is rather the direction and apparent uncertainty of education policy which is perplexing both students and parents-many are unsure which way to turn.
Education is the driving force that provides opportunities for those from lower socioeconomic groups to better themselves, so the provision of equal educational opportunity is a basic need. At present, disputes about the equity and justice of the OAP are ongoing. Will the ultimate goal of freedom from entrance exams be achieved when 12-year compulsory education becomes a reality? The Teacher's Association's Lin Ching-sung says that this will happen only if we get rid of the old system through which students were able to gain places in superior high schools and ultimately enter a top-ranked university.