Control Yuan: Quasi-Public Kindergartens Terminated for Severe Violations Should Have Better Information Disclosure

(CNA Reporter Gao Hua-qian, Taipei, 22nd) The Control Yuan stated that the Ministry of Education's kindergarten mechanism for the declining birthrate countermeasure failed to meet the policy goal of "primarily establishing public kindergartens, supplemented by a quasi-public mechanism." The MOE should review and improve it. Furthermore, for quasi-public kindergartens whose contracts are terminated by the government due to severe violations, a sound mechanism for external information disclosure should be established.

Control Yuan member Ji Hui-rong stated today through a press release that since the MOE implemented the "Expanded Public Preschool Educare Plan" in April 2017 and the declining birthrate countermeasure plan in 2018, it has adopted a parallel mechanism of adding public kindergartens and contracting private ones to become quasi-public kindergartens.

Ji said that although the MOE's approved budget for expanding public educare services has risen year by year, since the trial of the quasi-public mechanism in 2018 up to 2024, the actual enrollment rate of quasi-public kindergartens has drastically increased from 4.1% to 34.8%, while public kindergartens have remained at around 30%. Moreover, in the 2024 academic year, there was a decrease in public kindergartens and even insufficient enrollment, which hardly fits the MOE's policy goal of "primarily establishing public kindergartens, supplemented by a quasi-public mechanism."

Ji also pointed out that while the MOE has assisted public kindergartens in providing extended care and temporary care services, it has failed to meet the care needs of parents. In practice, there are still inconsistent open hours for extended care, a lack of complete extended care services during winter and summer vacations, and subsidies for personnel failing to cover the administrative costs required for extended care. These all require the MOE to regularly review the implementation by local governments.

Ji stated that the quasi-public mechanism has entered its third phase. Although the MOE continues to add related management and evaluation indicators to its supervision mechanism, the number of penalized quasi-public kindergartens for violations shows an upward trend year by year, and the rate is much higher than that of public kindergartens, which deserves the MOE's attention. In addition, to protect the public's right to know and to choose high-quality educare services, a sound mechanism for external information disclosure should be established for quasi-public kindergartens terminated by the government due to severe violations, in order to ensure the quality of quasi-public educare services.

Ji further pointed out that in practice, educare service institutions have different types of manpower, and different types of educare service personnel such as teachers, educare providers, and assistant educare providers are subject to different regulations and rights. This easily affects personnel stability and the inheritance of educare service experience due to salary, labor conditions, and environment. The MOE should consider the current manpower situation in educare services and, while expanding the capacity of educare services, continuously study countermeasures to enhance the protection of rights and the stability of educare service personnel, in order to fundamentally improve the quality of educare services. (Editor: Zhai Sijia) 1150422

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