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The National Teachers Association (NTA) is urging the government of Taiwan to listen to teachers and improve their working conditions and to align with the UN Recommendations on the teaching profession and achieve quality education.

Demands resulting from a union survey

A series of union campaign activities began with a protest in front of Ministry of Education, followed by two press conferences on September 28th, Taiwan’s Teachers' Day, and on October 5th, World Teachers’ Day.

At the latest press conference, the union reminded that “only by improving working conditions can we attract talented people to work in education.” It also revealed the top ten urgent demands arising from the results of a union survey in which over 11,000 teachers participated. NTA requested education authorities to immediately address these issues.

From the survey results, 97% of respondents asked that an immediate halt be put to the current unfair school incident management system which encourages abusive filing of complaints against teachers. Parents’ complaints without measure nor initial judgement have led to situations where teachers felt treated as suspects in a criminal investigation, undermining relations among teachers, parents and students, responding teacher unionists noted.

According to them, four other education policies also fall into the “Stop it right now” category: Forcing teachers to be crossing guards near the school; Overtime laid on teachers’ shoulders due to teacher shortage; Politicians’ unreasonable requests to school, such as the unpractical bilingual policy going against the students’ right to effective learning in their mother tongue.

Respondents further highlighted top “Do it right now” policies: 89.2% of them stressed that the Ministry of Education should support teachers and defend the teaching profession; Over 86% of them suffering from teacher shortage asked for less administrative work and higher salary; and nearly 80% of them said that lowering class size and increasing school security personnel were their key concerns. The survey sounds the alarm because according to the union, “teachers have nearly become forced labor in sweatshops called schools.”

NTA president Hou Chung-Liang also reiterated the union demand that a wage review system should engage representatives of teacher unions to make it transparent and accountable. The unsatisfying wage and pension systems have made teaching unattractive to young talents, even those who completed teacher education, he added.

More than ever, teachers need support and respect

To ensure teachers’ health and wellbeing, NTA also called for three to five days of paid mental health leaves. In addition, the abolition of the unfair school incident management system would restore trust and respect towards teachers.

And education authorities should listen to teachers and follow the UN Recommendations, the union insisted.

The NTA leader went on saying that the Ministry of Education should support educators, respect the teaching profession, and value teachers’ work.

He concluded by reiterating that quality education is the foundation of society and that there would be no quality education without quality teachers. “The world has been facing the crisis of teacher shortage and unsustainable education funding. Taiwan is no exception. It is obvious that the government should listen to teachers and improve their working conditions in line with the UN Recommendations.”

Education International stands with colleagues of the NTA and worldwide firmly voicing out their demands demand for fair working conditions for education workers and quality education for all. These demands echo the goals of the Education International’s Go Public! Fund Education campaign, an urgent call for governments to invest in public education, a fundamental human right and public good, and to invest more in teachers, the single most important factor in achieving quality education.