May 28, 2010
When a lower birth rate is bad for education
Taiwan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, if not THE lowest. While this has positive effects for things like the carbon footprint of the island, the squeeze on the housing market, and the overall sustainability of the quality of life, there are serious long-term consequences, such as the pressure on the smaller next generation to support the large population of retirees who are living longer.
A more immediate negative side effect, one that we are already seeing, is the effect on the schools. Fewer babies means fewer students, which means less need for teachers. Of course, if we need fewer teachers, then we hire fewer teachers, and the ones who can’t get a teaching job retrain themselves for a different career. That’s the easy part.
The hard part is dealing with the need to maintain and increase the quality of education in the schools. An article in a local news magazine points out that this year, Pingdong County, the southernmost county in Taiwan, will have no openings for new teachers in the entire county. They need to eliminate 60 teaching positions in the county, and retirements and attrition will take care of all of the reductions. No new teachers will be hired in the county for next year.
As long as nothing else changes, then this shouldn’t be too big of a problem, right?
Unfortunately, the county has to increase the amount of English instruction, because of a national mandate. Â That means that they need more English instructors. The schools can’t hire full-time permanent teachers, and so they have to hire hourly (US$8-10 per hour)Â teachers. You can imagine the caliber of teacher that they can find for that kind of money.
The quality of English instruction in the rural areas of Taiwan is already shaky. Lower birth rates will only make things worse.
Here’s the original article, for those of you who can read Chinese: