At today's Cabinet meeting, Premier Mao Chi-kuo asked the Ministry of Education (MOE) to continue to encourage colleges and universities to reserve more admissions places for disadvantaged students through measures like affirmative action, separate application systems and the "top university project."
The MOE has been offering admissions and economic assistance to such students in order to enhance social mobility, the premier pointed out after the MOE reported about the results of such efforts as well as future strategies.
Two concepts coexist within the nation's education policy, Mao said: One is nurturing the specific talents of each individual; the other is funneling top performers into the institutions with the most resources. Because a huge share of students at elite colleges and universities were also alumni of elite secondary schools, however, the top university project was created to ensure the best tertiary institutions guarantee rural students a definite number of admissions.
According to the MOE, the affirmative action program led to the enrollment of 11,270 students in 2014 (about 10 percent of all enrollees). That number is projected to increase year to year, reaching 16,000 (about 15 percent of enrollees) in 2017.
Future assistance for disadvantaged college and university students should focus more on academic guidance and cultivation of employability, Mao said. He asked the MOE to use big data to establish an individualized learning support system and to actively promote measures like the "takeoff plan" to help disadvantaged students prepare to enter the workplace.
"No student should be left without the power to swim upstream," the premier said. "Academic counseling for disadvantaged students should start in elementary school."
Mao asked the MOE to implement remedial instruction in elementary and junior high schools, utilize science and technology in teaching, employ innovative pedagogy, stimulate students' learning motivation and effectiveness, and enhance the overall quality of education.