Premier Mao Chi-kuo today visited Tao-Yuan Primary School in Taitung County to inspect digital learning development in indigenous villages and broadband Internet connection improvements at remote schools.
The premier stated that Taiwan's education system requires improvements, and where to start and how to effectively reform should be the foremost issues to explore. Mao believes that remedies should begin from the margin to gradually overhaul the whole system. This is because beginning from the periphery calls for smaller-scale programs, making it easier to apply atypical means.
Premier Mao reiterated that he pays great attention to remedial education and education in remote areas. The two overlap in certain ways, he pointed out. In both fields, teaching materials, teaching methods and teachers all have to be quite different from traditional regular education to succeed. The Internet and digitization, including smooth online platforms and appropriate digital teaching materials, are necessary tools. Via technological changes, an educational revolution will be effected. When educational concepts and teaching methods are quite different from the past, they can indeed engender a more pluralistic environment among teachers and students.
The premier emphasized that if the government's trial promotion of broadband Internet in remote schools is successful, the next step would be to move toward the core and regular education. He hopes teachers in the regular education system can go to remote schools to observe, then apply successful learning experiences to urban schools. This would enhance the entire system and facilitate regular education's turnaround, he said.