The Hardships of School Instructors Whose Schools Closed Down, with the Student Onboard Another Sinking Ship

This would be, the domino effect from the reduction of birthrates here, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

After the closing down of the Nanrong Technical University, close to seven hundred students were, transferred to other schools, and there are only the officeworkers still working at the school right now, the former applied Japanese associate professor, Hsu, on the matter, of the process of the school’s closing down, still felt, quite, upset, sighed, “the students were discriminated against, bullied, the professors couldn’t find teaching positions, and some even started working in the construction sites as manual laborers now, this is what the higher up officials in the Department of Education failed to notice and see.”

Hsu told, the school not running well enough, this is only, partially the reason for why the school got closed down, but twenty years ago, the government had, encouraged the setting up of countless community colleges, technical colleges, universities, it’s the fault of the government, and yet now, the consequences are shouldered, solely, by these, private institutions of higher education; Nanrong was located in the distant regions, hard enough as is to run and operate, and under the wrong policies, with the impacts of reduction in birthrate, it’d, become an easy target of the “Vulture Group”, hard for it, not to get, closed down.  He’d only begged the Department of Education, to change the purpose of the school’s properties, to made into some other functional space, “this is what the department of education can do for these private colleges and universities.”

The school’s original associate professor from business management, Shen told, it’s hard to find another teaching job, a lot of the professors were forced to switch tracks, some became tramping professors, there were the instructors from the school who’d gone off to China, some of the professors who went to China even got called back, to the school for owing of the wages of the professors on the payroll, but “the Department of Education only allowed the professors to sue the schools that hired them.”

He’d told, that back then the students from the Department of Business Management, with the help from the Department of Education, were able to successfully transfer to another school’s business administration department to continue their education, but that school soon stopped, enrolling too, “from one sinking ship, onto, another, sinking ship.”; there were the students who had to put in the commute time of one to two hours to go to school, and in the end, the students had to, give up on their, studies altogether; and there were the students who’d told him of how they were discriminated against, bullied by the professors at their new schools that “you have no right to come to our school to study in the first place!”

After the Tourist School of Taiwan stopped operating, the students set up a self-help committee, fought to get their own graduation certificates, their degrees, from their, original, school.  The student who set up the self-help committee, Fang told, that the Department of Education demanded the board to make the donations to the school’s functions, the board didn’t, the Department of Education just chose to look the other way, allowing the board of trustees of the school to do what they will with the school.

Fang stated, that as she enrolled back in 2018, there were six departments that had stopped enrolling the new students, a lot of the students of those majors “got in and filed for transfers to another school shortly afterwards”, but she was in the community college track, and wasn’t a part of the systems back then, she’d stayed, and now, after a few years’ worth of studying, she still can’t, escape the same fates.

There’s only the restaurant and hotel management department that remained at the Langyang Technical School, and the school decided to stop enrollment for the department altogether by the end of next school year.  The parent, Yang told, that this was what they’d all expected, they weren’t surprised at all, her child is in the third-year-of the five-year degree program, and can still graduate from the school before it closes.  The professors of the school told, that there’s no debts of the school, and yet, in recent years, it’d slowly, backed itself away, out of the education forum, that the school took care of the rights of the professors on the payrolls, so, the professors hadn’t strongly objected against the school’s closing down.

And so, this, would be, a bad sort of a trend, just like how quickly from before these technical universities got set up and started operating, now, they’re all, falling left and right, due to the reduced birth rates, among other factors too, and, the students who are currently in the systems had no other option, but either to stop getting their higher education, start working, or find a way to transfer to another university that’s, not going to close anytime soon.

The Hsinbei’s Hope Sprouting Plan Helped Nearly a Thousand Students to Go to School

A helping hand, for those children who want to get educated but are having difficulties affording it themselves, off of the Newspapers, translated…

The city of Hsinbei implemented the “Hope Sprouting Education Plan” last year, matching the hundreds of cram schools in the districts, to give the students from elementary to high school who are from bad economic circumstances a whole year’s worth of tuition free learning help sessions, including the academic subjects as well as music, abacus, mental calculations, and many other skills, this year, there were, close to a thousand students who’d signed up for it.

Yu who graduated from middle school because of this free tutoring program was successful in getting into the art track in high school, Ming who graduated from elementary school received free English help sessions, and gotten into the G.T. programs of middle school, and received a full scholarship.

The Department of Education pointed out, that any students who have a household registry in Hsinbei City, and qualified for low income sustenance, or other qualifications, can all apply for the “Hope Sprout Education Plan”, and the period of assistance lasts from September of this year to June of next year.

The head of Social Services agency under the Department of Education, Huang stated, that since the first year of this plan, it’d helped 500 students, and this year, it’d, almost doubled to 964 children, and other than the academic help, the system also included dance, chess, piano, music theory, and art, along with other forms of talents, and one student can apply for one course.

Yu who just graduated from middle school this year, showed an immense interest in drawing since he was young, in his second year of middle school, he’d decided to take the exams to go into a high school with the art trainings, but his family economic couldn’t allow, so he was thinking of choosing an alternative track, but under this plan, he was trained formally by an art studio, and, this year, he got into the art department of a certain public high school.

Another student, Ming, who just entered into his first year of middle school this year, being from a single parent household, although he lived under poverty stricken means, he’d kept his grades in the front of his class, he wanted to improve his English skills, his mom filed for the application of the Sprouting Plan, so her son’s English performance excelled, and he was able to test into the GT English class of a certain private high school, and received full-scholarship too.

So, these assistance programs are working wonders for these students who are willing and able learners, but lacked the monetary advantage, and this program lets them pursue their studies, with no worries of money, which allowed them to excel in the subjects they’re good in, which gives them a way, to pull themselves, out of their poverty stricken backgrounds, and this is a good program.

Of All the Successful Entrepreneurs, Ninety-Percent Had Once Worked in a Corporation

Laying the brick works here, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

Should the newly graduated youths start working for a company, or, should they, start their own businesses?  The junior and about-to-be entrepreneur, Lin said, IF you want success in entrepreneurship, from the practical point of view, there are over ninety-percent of people who’d worked for the businesses, and had been trained.

Lin used his own experiences, at first, when he’d started his entrepreneurship, he was among the “cofounders”, there’s a little bit less of the pressure, although he’d gotten the opportunities to learn back then, but, what he learned, wasn’t that much at all, because the leader of the group lacked real-world experiences too, and, they’d all, buried their heads, and worked without a purpose; after a decade’s worth of experiences in entrepreneurship, he’s finally able to, start on his own.

He’d pointed out, that in ALL the successful entrepreneurs in the society, over ninety-percent had once worked in a corporation, because when you’re making your own businesses, you must know the products, the sales techniques, the operations, the managing, the finance, the laws and the regulations, if you didn’t work as a nine-to-five, everything starts at zero, it’s really hard, to learn, to manage all of these skills quickly enough; if you can enter into a corporation to learn, then, you’d be able to learn these needed techniques, instead of you, doing things blind.

Secondly, from the environmental angle, the society in Taiwan isn’t at all friendly toward those new entrepreneurs, and would NOT actively cooperate with those fresh-off-the-farm entrepreneurs, and so, you’d must accumulate the experiences, the connections, and, entering into the workforce is one way of achieving this.

There are a lot of the successful entrepreneurs who’d dropped out of school, then, set up their businesses, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the like.  Like the creator of Paypal, Peter Thiel, he’d also gotten involved in the 20 under 20 plan, encouraged those in college to DROP out, and start their own business.  Lin reminded, that those who were able to successfully make a business work after dropping out of college are the “geniuses of geniuses”, and it’s not for everybody to try; on the contrary, if you have great qualifications, and, if you are interested in entrepreneurship, you should first, work for the corporations, to gain some experiences first.

And so, this, is someone, sharing HIS experiences with those who are interested in embarking in entrepreneurship, and, he’s right on how it is hard, being an entrepreneur, especially IF this, is your very first attempt, you’re without the experiences, without the connections, you may have a degree, but that’s about it, and, in the real world, we care about working experiences and work abilities, NOT just a higher degree, so, what this guy suggested, to work for a corporation FIRST, then, STRIKE out on your own, is quite workable!  And besides, it’s from someone who’s BEEN THERE, and DONE THAT too, and he’s just, sharing his own experiences, hoping that it could save those in the community who wanted to STRIKE out, from making the errors that he’d made, because he was inexperienced at the very beginning of HIS own entrepreneurship.

The Halo of Having a Higher Degree

Is it, myth, or truth, fact, or fiction, I wonder…

The halo of having a higher degree, this, is what the world is currently, affect by, because in this day and age, IF you only have a bachelor’s degree (hey, wait a sec, that, is what I had!!!), you ain’t gettin’ NOWHERE in the workforce, as those major companies are looking for those who can withstand the stresses that comes with doing presentations, taking examination, and, juggling those research papers, all at the same time, isn’t that right?

The halo of having a higher degree, however, is slowly, losing color, because, as this society ages, people are more focused on having a viable skill, after all, if you have a master or up, and NO job, how the HECK you gonna FEED yourselves?  And so, the halo of having a higher degree is slowly, losing importance, as people today are coming to the realizations of hey, an IVY LEAGUE education ain’t WORTH shit, after all, just because you’d graduated from an IVY LEAGUE, that still doesn’t mean, that you’d have a smooth ride, to the very T-O-P, in the workforce, does it???  Nope, so, looks like the values, the emphasis, they’re, slowly shifting in this world here………

The Head of the Department of Education Warned, that in a Decade, There Would be More Stray Doctorates Than Stray Teachers

An EXPERT’s O-P-I-N-I-O-N, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

Annually, 3000 people couldn’t put what they’d learned to good use, the black hole of employment, Wu: treat the doctoral students like treasures…not giving them enough trainings or education, the fault is with the schools.

The head of the Department of Education, Si-Hua Wu yesterday, pointed out on the “Nationally College Management Meeting” pointed out, that based off of inventories done by the Department of Education, there are about 3,000 doctoral graduates who couldn’t manage to get a teaching spot at the school’s rosters, that they must go out of their areas of expertise, or venture out into an unknown industry, to find work, that if we don’t look at the serious unemployment issues of doctorates, a decade from now, the population of “tramping doctorates” will beat out the number of “tramping school instructors.”

“Treat the doctorates as if they were treasures.”  Wu reminded the schools’ professors, that when they tried to find the doctoral students, to not treat them like their research assistants, that they should focus on the students more, and give each student the different assistance they needed individually, to allow those doctoral students to be able to become outstanding in whatever industries they choose to be in after they got out of school.

The statistical measures done by the Department of Education found, that there are about 5,000 doctoral students graduating, and, 3,500 of them had their eyes on a job; and there are only 800 teaching posts that are opened up in universities or colleges annually, and, about 300 of these spots are filled by foreigner doctorate holders; in other words, there are only one-seventh, about five hundred graduate students who would be able to get a teaching post in the universities annually, and, those other 3,000 must seek out work opportunities elsewhere.

Wu believed, that the key to improve the employment of doctorates lies in “reeducation”, how to allow what the doctorates learned in school work in the world, helping to develop new industries, this, is a problem that the schools need to give much thoughts on, “if the students didn’t get enough training or education, then, it would be the schools’ and the professors’ faults.”

Uh yeah, you have got to be shitting me!  Do you know HOW many students who’d graduated from their masters, doctors or post-docs programs are out there, and, many of them still CHOOSE (actively too!!!) to stay at home, and be a NERD that do NOTHING but play those online games, and yet, this MORON (no offense), leading the Department of Education is saying how the professors are the ones, who FAILED to prepare the students for “life afterwards”???  Are you FUCKING (oopsy!!!) kidding me here!

The Three New “Masters” are Valued More Today, We Must Educate Children, Based Off of the Trends the Society is Flowing Towards

The trends of youth’s career choices here, it surely HAD shifted far, from yesterday’s, hasn’t it???  From the Front Page Sections, translated…

Chefs, professional athletes, engineers, and manicurists became the ideal profession for middle schoolers, it’s very far from the traditional lawyers, teachers, doctors now.  The success group in life is NO longer centered on excelling in school, this showed how multifaceted the world is now, becoming.  The younger generation’s views toward their futures about their jobs has to do with the society, the economic downturn, the low starting salary, and the instability of the jobs, and it’s not improving yet.  The smaller business ventures of opening up small shops, to work hard, and hope for the best, to NOT follow the trends set by those large corporations, and the college graduates’ base salary of $22,000 N.T. to $26,000N.T per month, along with how busy it would be, trying to make ends meet.

The difference in choices of these students showed that the world is changing, how we’re going towards a multiple interests, and how there are NO lowly worker, and, even though, occupation is correlated with statuses in society, but, the blurred boundaries of college education, the varied occupations, the reputations of the careers, along with the earnings.

And so, this world is still, slowly, shifting, now, the kids NO longer cared that much about slaving their lives away, like their parents had, after all, those, were a different time, weren’t they?  Today, the kids have their own focuses, and there’s NOTHING wrong with that, and that just goes to show, that your generation’s beliefs may NOT work well on this current generation’s minds, so, do NOT force your kids to choose the careers that you want them to have!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When a College Degree is NO Longer a Guarantee for a Good Job

Welcome, to the current day situation!!!

Whereas way back when (and that was, a VERY, VERY, V-E-R-Y long time ago), having a college degree meant that you’re guaranteed a decent enough job, and now, because there are a TON of community colleges, universities out there, and the entrance bar was lowered by a HELL of a lot, so, the value of a college education is also on the decline… When a college degree is NO longer a guarantee for a good job, what CAN you do, to UP your chances of getting a good job, and, don’t most jobs require that you at least have a college degree, before they consider hiring you?  So, even though, a college degree is NO guarantee that you’ll get a good job, but, it’s a foot-in-the-door.

When a college degree is NO longer a guarantee for a good job, as the retirement age had been pulled back, (what is is???  68 right now???), and, with those kids who are graduating after five, six years of education, by the time they DO enter into the REAL world, they’d have an even HARDER time adapting to the working environment…

 

 

 

The Courage to Make Her Grand Exit, Work or Keep Studying

In the workforce, translated…

After a decade, I’d met up once more, with my colleagues from the research institution again, and I’d realized that of the twelve students in my class, that the only one who’d already gotten to my goal in life from back then, was S, who’d filed for retirement after she’d received her degree, gave up on the hard-to-come-by opportunity to further her education, and entered into the workforce.

Back then, her dorms are right next door, we’d already talked about similar issues before, I’d suggested that she finished her degree first, after all, she’s already half-way done with her course requirements, and that we must finish from beginning to end, but she believed, that her dream is to become a professional agent, and, if keep going to school does NOT fulfill the requirements of what she was looking for, why not just quit.  I could feel her anxiety, after all, “dropping out” is quite rare back then, for us who’d gotten baptized by the national entrance exams, “dropping out” symbolized failure, it’s almost the same as getting kicked out of school, and S, who’d gone through the best schools in her lower years of education, it’s imaginable the pressures she must’ve felt on the issues of “dropping out”.

After I’d received my master’s degree, there was an influx of higher education degree holders, and so, with a master’s degree, it doesn’t help me in job hunting, it’d even become an obstacle to my getting a job.  And, because of how I couldn’t find a job, most of my graduate class had chosen to take the government positions examinations, or to head off abroad to get their doctorates.  A decade after we graduated, we’d reunited again, there were still a handful of us who are going to school abroad, only S, she’s on the right path to living her own dreams, she now works at a foreign company, in a manager’s position.  Recalling all the changes we’d gone through in our lives, I realized, that stamina and persistence are two important factors, but, facing this ever-changing world, having the courage to make the exits is even MORE important!

And so, this woman “strayed” from the path, she struck out, because she felt that it’d be best, if she’d started working, and turns out she was right too, after all, a LOT of people are choosing to go BACK to school, because they couldn’t find a job, and so, school becomes a sort of an escape from their realities, and the longer they’d stayed in school, the harder it would be, for them all, to get their lives BACK on track.

The Children’s Futures, Let THEM Decide

From a school principal, translated…

Close to the lunch hours, the personnel manager of my school, Shu-Juan called me to report: the specialized exam grades had been posted, without much thought, I’d asked her about how a couple of the students did.

One was Ping, he was from a distant mountain side, three years ago, he came on his own to register for class, because his elementary school principal said that there would be more of a competitive edge to him if he’d gone to the cities for school, his parents both worked in China, he lives with his grandparents, and, in order to come to school here, he’d started renting an apartment on his own, he is managing himself very well, and has excellent grades, the school teachers had nothing BUT good things to say about him.  But, his national exam scores showed different, he’d gotten into a distant school, in the chemical engineering majors, I was shocked, called him up, and asked him about it, he smiled and told me, that he didn’t put much thought when filling out the sheets for his major, “I intended to take the specialized examinations, don’t you know?”  Back then, he’d told me with such persistence.

As the grades are posted, I learned that he’d gotten into his first choice of school, I’m truly excited for him, thought, that these last three years’ hard work is for this!  But, he shocked me, once again, he’d signed up for another school.  Shu-Juan told me, when he’d turned in his card, she’d asked him if he wanted to put down the school that everybody wanted to go to, he persistently told her, “This, is my choice”.  After I’d heard, I started laughing, and I’m really proud of him, he could’ve picked a first choice school, returned back to the tribe in the mountains, and allowed everybody to ooh and ahh over him, and make the grandparents pound, but he’d bravely followed his own heart, “this, is MY choice”.

There is another child, whose mother works in education too, he’d gotten into his second-choice school, she thought he did wonderfully, told him not to take the exams again, but the child told her, that he wanted to give it a try, giving himself a chance, “even IF I didn’t make it, at least, I wouldn’t have any regrets”.

As the grades came out, she knew he didn’t do as well as he’d wanted to, she’d just accepted it, because there was NO regret about it.

“Her mother is the hardest, after circling around, she’d returned back to where she was before”, Shu-Juan’s heart goes out to the mother, I smiled and told, that that, was the sweetest burdens that mothers carry, no matter how her daughter did, she saw how her child didn’t let a chance slip by, she must feel heartache, and proud too at the same time.

And, there were a couple more children, who’d set their goals up toward occupational training, when the school was out and the parents came to pick them up, they’d felt awkward, and told me, “It’s not as if they were going for that first choice, they are just trying to get into technical high school, and they’d still come early, to study alongside those kids who planned to enter into a university.  Back then, I told the parent, “You should be proud, your child had already found his goals”, at the same time, I’d gave the speech on there are an assortment of outstanding jobs out there to her, the parents said, “We’d heard you so many times before, principal, and we’d done what you’d asked, read those three ‘shapeless books’: know yourselves, love, and life”, after that, it was me, who felt awkward then.

“Principal, those who’d gotten into their first choice schools, are mostly from your school!”, I was told by a reporter, as he’d told me the results of his research.  I smiled, “it doesn’t matter where the kids get into, the important thing was whose choice was it!”, I started telling the reporter the stories of Ping, An, Ru, along with many others.

“Principal, don’t you feel bad for the kids?  Don’t you believe, that they should change the ways of the examinations next year?  Rearranged the orders of the examinations, or, just have ONE big entrance exams!”, the reporter asked me.

I smiled that annoyed smile, “NO matter which way you use, there would be things that are considered by the higher up offices in the education department, it’s just that they may have overlooked the issues in education; and didn’t really understand the parents, and what’s more, was that they didn’t have a way, to back up why they are doing things the way they are doing them, to set the public’s mind at ease.” I know, that the first year of the education reform had gone by, in the nonstop ranting and noises, and, in the future, the parents will focus on the issues that are presented here, and the society will keep on ranting about those all-star schools, I know, that in the midst of all this noise, we must prepare ourselves, to be open for new ideas, to fight a brand new war, to help the kids get their fundamentals strong enough, to help them develop a multitude of interests, that, is what I need to do.

I wanted to tell the higher up officers, when you are discussing whether to get rid of the rules, do take a look at the kids!  A lot of the children had already shown us, with their persistence: it’s OUR future, let US decide!

And so, W-H-O is this reform in education really for?  The kids?  Hell no, it’s for the adults, after all, all the kids need to do is show UP for school, sit in those classrooms for eight hours, then, they’d get “shipped off” to cram school afterwards, and don’t go home until the wee hours of the nights.

Who Says the Children Who Misbehaved Would End Up as Lowlifes?

Just because you didn’t have a good start earlier in life doesn’t mean that you’ll end up badly, you can still make your lives better, you know???  Translated…

On the newscast, it mentioned that a namely American interior designer, when he was a teen, he’d gotten into a lot of bad business, but gladly, his school teachers were very kind toward him, and they’d managed to steered him into the right directions.  After he became famous, he’d gone back to his alma mater, to thank his instructors, the teachers said, “Our duties, are to help the students uncover their passions and dreams!”

This reminded me of something I’d gone through…

At the door of the office stood a youth who looked glowing, he slowly walked toward me, smiled and told, “Teacher, I’m Lu, from a certain class, do you still remember me?”

And, my memories flashed to ten years ago, the most head achy student I ever had, but this young man who’s full of self-confidence and courteous, it was hard, for me to link the two together.  What sort of an experience, had helped him turn his life around?

This student, Lu, had been interested in arts and designs, and toward the academic stuff, he showed absolutely NO interests at all.  But, both his parents, who graduated from technical high schools told him, “Son, I want you to be better than I am”, hoped that he could graduate high school and go on to college.  The layers of pressures, plus his puberty, had caused Lu to act up in class, and he’d even led his classmates to make a mess in the school, and naturally, he’d made a TON of bad grades too.

But the school did NOT give up on this child, through a multiple methods of approach, and the communications with the parents, the4y’d finally respected the child, and allowed him to take the arts department examinations at a technical high school.

Lu poured his heart and soul into his interests, and had outstanding performances in school, and managed to build up his own self-confidence.  Three years later, he’d graduated, and entered into a designing firm.  And because he did excellent work, he received a ton of orders, at age twenty-one, he made enough money to buy a house; the company had even decided, that after he’d served his army terms, to send him to England to study.

On the eve of his army service ending and leaving the country, Lu returned back to his alma mater middle school, to show his gratitude toward us, his teachers.  I looked at this boy with a bright future who looked glowing, I was truly happy for him, and I’d said a simple blessing for him, and, who says that troublemakers in school are bound to turn into lowlifes later on?

Because he had supportive teachers and parents who allowed him to take the alternative route, that, was why this person was able to get beyond himself, and that just shows how important support is, in a kid’s life.