Educational Systems Differences Betwen Us and Taiwan

WU, CHIA-CHEN (Judy) MDFL 290

The Differences of Educational Systems between the US and Taiwan

The educational system in the US and Taiwan is not totally equal. It might attributes to different concepts and customs, means that each country has each way to educate the students. There are three topics that are worth discussing: Educational Philosophies, K-12 education and Higher Education. It is also seen that good educational system leads to a higher education.

Educational philosophies in the US and Taiwan are generally similar. These principles have been established by educational philosophers throughout the years. In the US, there are three principles: equal access to education, strive for 100% literacy among high school students, state and local governments have a lot of control over schools. First of all, all students should have access to public education, but not totally the same in Taiwan. As students enter high school, they have to get higher grades to study in a public school. However, the government is going to extend the school year so that make sure every student can go to the public high school next year (note: it has been a controversial issue in Taiwan recently. I will discuss in the following pages). Also, standardized examinations should not prohibit further study after high school in the US. In Taiwan, we use a lot of this kind of tests when entering from middle schools to graduated schools, even to be civil servants. To be honest, I do not like it at all. It is said that standardized tests cannot measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of the other valuable dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and function, content knowledge, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning.--Bill Ayers. In addition to physically and mentally challenged students, aboriginal students (whose parent were born in the mountain and got less chances to compete with those grew up in the city) are admitted in Taiwanese schools. Give preferential treatments to special status students (including foreign students, students who has good performance on sports or international race, veteran, children of civil servants be sent to foreign country, by Mongolian or Tibetan tests and have Taiwan household registration of the Mongolian or Tibetan students and students in major disaster areas) is one of the characteristics of the education system in Taiwan. The same as community colleges in America allow for less academically able students to earn a degree. Furthermore, it is very common that hundreds of thousands of students go to language schools in the US. Courses are provided to non-native speakers of English to prepare for American colleges or universities. It is thought that English is an international language and the quality of university in the US has a good reputation. Second, the education system in the US should strive to produce high school students who are 100 percent literate. In most states, students must attend school until 16. In Taiwan, it is our duty to finish the school till we finish middle schools. As a result, it is almost the same. More than 85 percent of American complete at least four years of high school or more. Nonetheless, there is only three years in Taiwanese high schools. In an aspect, it is too short for them to explore the interests and decide the major. While the figures tell that most of students attend to school both in Taiwan and America, it is pretty high ratio for Taiwanese students go to high schools and colleges. Third, the federal government does not have control over schools; schools are governed by local school districts. For example, individual states determine the curriculum. Public schools are funded by property taxes in the districts in which they are located. In my opinion, America is too huge to take charge in each state easily. Compare to it, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan uniform all the exams though we are a small island where has 23 million people.

K-12 education in the US includes from kindergarten, elementary school and middle school. It has a few differences in its structure and courses. The structure of American schools is 6-year elementary school (including one-year kindergarten), 3-year middle school (since 6th grade) and 4-year high school.

That is why some parents disagree about 12-years-public school, because their children put a lot of efforts on the exam then government says no more test when enter high schools.

Some of my American friends went to private high school. They think the quality in private school is better than public school because the educational philosophy in the US allows all students access to school until high school. The tuition in public school is free, but they rather choose private school to earn a better education. One of my American friends disagreed with the way they taught before college. In Taiwan, we were beat if we did not get the good grade. She thought bad students should be beat when they made mistakes, but there is no punishment in the US.

Higher (post-secondary) education facilities in the US are more plentiful and larger than in Taiwan. Students in the US can choose various types of schools depending on their interests, from undergraduate schools, graduate schools to state universities, community colleges. It is no doubt that higher education in the US is better than most countries. Though the tuition is ten-times more expensive than in Taiwan, the quality is not good in most university except the top schools.

In conclusion, by making these comparisons, you can clearly tell the differences between that the educational systems of the US and Taiwan. In my opinion, not every educational system is the best. If you want me to choose, I prefer the US educational system in higher education.