The Educational System in Taiwan-Our Perspective  

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The major shock to us on this trip was how the school system in Taiwan operates. It treats children with varying communications and learning disabilities as “throw away’ children. Nationally, there is little or no concentrated attention on providing free and appropriate educational services for children with these types of  handicaps. It turns out that each city we visited has varying degrees of services for children with learning disabilities but none which is as inclusive and exhaustive as we see in the States. 

Connie Messina, Ph.D. begins her first Workshop on Learning Disabilities in Taichung. Her interpreter was Sally Chang. This experience set the stage for her next two programs.

If a child has a learning disability there is little or no chance of going to college unless the child is able to over compensate for the presence of the disability since there are little or no services available to assist these children reach their fullest potential. 

Right: The Taichung audience numbered 60, for Connie's Learning Disabilities Workshop

The same is true for children with speech and language disorders, ADHD, high functioning autism, motor planning and other perceptual and processing difficulties. 

This boy 3 years old was brought to the Taichung workshop by his mother in hopes that he would be assessed. We did do a cursory overview and found out that he could speak words, but could not speak in sentences. He was orally defensive. He appeared to have oral motor problems. He appeared to be a good candidate for the diagnosis of apraxia. When mom was encouraged to bring him to a speech pathologist for an evaluation, we were informed that no such services were available to a child this boys age. Early intervention is almost non-existent in Taiwan.

In Connie’s three workshops in Taichung, Taipei, and Kaohsiung, we heard horror stories of how children with learning disabilities were ignored, called "stupid", made fun of, and given no chance to succeed in school. Most all of the schools do not offer modifications of any classroom or testing procedures for these students. 

Connie's second workshop in Taipei had 120 attending. The regional superintendent of the schools welcomed the teachers to this program. Taipei was more advanced that Taichung but still it was clear the use of modifications to help children over come their problems was unheard of. They had resource rooms for some students but most were just left to manage on their own.

Up until next year all students have had to take a written examination in order to enter a college bound High School program. This is changing in school year 2000 when the exam has been dropped. 

Connie and her interpreter, Sally Chang, were swamped at each of the breaks in all three of her workshops to answer questions and problem solve issues. The teachers and parents who attended the programs were grateful for any help or suggestions Connie could give on how to improve the fate of many students represented by those who attended the workshops.

Pre-college trained students have to take a national examination for entrance into the University. This exam is being changed from a written to an oral examination. However, the people fear that it will be highly subjective and still very discriminatory based on class, economic status, or ethic origin. 

Connie's last workshop in Kaohsiung was attended by 120. This city has the best resources for students with special needs but yet it was too little, too late and not at all sufficient to meet the needs of the students who were not identified by the schools.

There is no national law, like the IDEA,  which guarantees all handicapped students a free and equal education. There are however special education laws which primarily make provisions for the education and habilitation of students who have mental and severe physical handicaps. There is no organized program of early intervention in Taiwan. If any child, under the age of 5 years, displays any level of developmental delay the general approach is to believe that the child will grow out of it with time. There are no organized teams of professionals available to do evaluations of students suspected of having any developmental delays. Also there are no teams available in the school system to evaluate children if there is a suspicion of a learning difficulty. There are just enough professionals to assess mentally and physically handicapped students but there is no organized program to deal with the lesser perceptual, motoric or processing impaired. Slow learners, late bloomers, and children who have minor difficulties in comprehending mathematical or reading problems are left behind in the system. 

Connie challenged teachers and parents to work together to advocate for a change in the system to insure all children were treated fairly no matter what their learning differences or styles were in Kaohsiung but also in Taipei and Taichung.

On the average there are 50 students in the classroom in the elementary school. 60 students in the Middle and High School classrooms. School day runs from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm six days a week. As of last year the schools and work places take off on alternating Saturdays. The western perspective is how well managed the school system is and how well educated the children are. We in the west never hear about the large majority of students who are left behind. The students who do not pass the High School Examination are enrolled in technological training centers. These institutions are quite large. There is an examination given to get the completion diploma. Students in both the regular High School and Technological High Schools are provided after school tutoring to prepare for the their respective final comprehensive examinations. This tutoring is given daily from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Students in their junior and senior year of school participate in this process. 

On Tunghai University Campus a common sight which was loads of motor scooters parked while students were in class. Boys dream of getting a motor scooter in Taiwan like fellows back in the states look forward to getting their fist car. These two wheel babies are well cared for by their adolescent male owners.

Every male no matter what level of education must spend two years in the Taiwan military. If a student graduates or drops out of technological school then he must enter the military. College graduates must enter unless they go to graduate school. Graduate and professional school graduates must also serve in the military. This is true for doctors, lawyers and Ph.D.’s. A man is not allowed to go outside of the country until he has served his two years of military service. So men who want to go outside of the country for higher education must go through the military first. The MOST shocking statistic we learned is that on the average about 2000 men die each year in the Taiwanese military forces. The cause of death is accidents, suicide, and other casualties from careless mistakes, mis-perceptions and mis-directions. The believe is that many of those who die have unidentified learning disabilities and due to their poor perceptual and processing functioning incur their untimely death.

 Connie and I met a young man who is 16 years of age. When he was 13 he spent the year in the USA. He learned to write and talk English very well. However, he is not able to write Chinese. English only has 26 characters and Chinese has 40,000. He was given appropriate support and classroom modifications while in the States. On return to Taiwan he again suffered insults from teachers and fellow students. He did not pass the High School exam and is in a technological school where he continues to receive a great deal of distressing put downs and insults. He is very bright. He is majoring in computers. The goal is for him to complete his military commitment and then return to the states to get a higher education. He is a classic example of a “throw away” student. He would do quite well in the States. He would be put on computer for all written work, calculator for all mathematics, he would be allowed to tape all classroom lectures and discussions, be provided a peer note taker to give him back up notes from classroom lectures, and he would be provided all his text and reading books on tape. No such modifications have ever been made available to him. There are thousands more like him in the Taiwanese system. (Note: this is true not only in Taiwan but throughout the Eastern Cultures where little or no effort is made to work with students with learning disabilities.)

• How to develop and maintain Screening, Identification, Intervention and Follow up services for children from birth to six years of age who are experiencing any form of developmental difference, delay or disorder.
• How to educate parents of children with any level of special needs on how to effectively support, advocate for, and case manage the education and training of their children.
• How to assist teachers, therapists and parents in learning how to become effective teams of support for children with any level of special needs.
• What to advocate for in terms of national policy or regulations to insure that all children with any level of special needs are adequately and appropriately educated by the educational system in Taiwan.
• Training on how to best include students with any level of special education needs into the mainstream of the educational process in Taiwan.
• Training for speech, occupational, and physical therapists in pediatric intervention strategies to insure there are adequate therapeutic support services for children who are identified as having needs prior to their sixth birthday.
• Training for psychologists, social workers, and counselors on how to screen, test, and evaluate children for the presence of a whole variety of sensory, motor planning and learning problems to insure there are enough evaluators available in Taiwan to adequately screen all students who deserve to be identified as having a "special educational need."
• Training for all interested peoples on how to deal with children who have learning differences to insure that they are supported by the educational system to reach their fullest potential.

We would like to begin to assist the people of Taiwan to address these needs through a Distance Learning Model by means of computer interactive programming.  If you are a professional willing to contribute your time and talents to this project please contact us at:

Email: jjmess@tampabay.rr.com Phone: 813.631.5176 or Fax: 813.631.1119