Letter to THE TAIPEI TIMES

23 August 2000

Letter to the Editor

Dear Sir,

Dr. Ovid Tseng, our Minister of Education, has announced plans to teach
English to primary school students within two years. Obviously, Dr.
Tseng believes that English is necessary for our students in today’s
global village. I do not challenge such a belief or such a goal.
Yet it stands in conflict with the recent enactment of a disputed
Employment Law, which discriminates against the same foreign teachers we
need to achieve those educational goals.
Indeed, the law has already been abused by university administrators
more concerned with academic conformity than with educational reform.
These administrators now have the power to punish recusant colleagues,
though recusancy is a necessary part of a democratic academic
tradition. Not only is the law discriminatory in itself, but it has
stripped our country’s foreign teachers of their basic rights and
dignities. This is because, according to the Ministry of Education, the
country’s Teacher’s Law does not apply to a foreign teacher despite a
teaching certificate signed by our Minister of Education and regardless
of that teacher’s years of service in the country. It is, instead, the
country’s foreign labor law that currently regulates the employment of
foreign teachers.
Are foreign teachers our colleagues or our inferiors?
For, according to the recent interpretation of the Employment Law,
foreign teachers are second-class citizens. And they do not enjoy the
same basic tenure rights as local teachers, as stated in Article 14 of
the Teacher’s Law.
Ordinarily, should a teaching or research institute, for example, a
university or school, decide not to renew a teacher’s contract, Article
14 of the Teacher’s Law states clearly the conditions for reaching such
a decision.
Yet under the new Employment Law, the rights of foreign teachers are
waived.
The hiring institution can fire a foreign teacher (by not renewing
his/her contract) without giving any reasons whatsoever. Should a
teacher demand a proper reason, the teaching organization can fabricate
excuses for its action, which is then routinely ratified by the Ministry
of Education. Sometimes even libel and slander may be used to
legitimate bogus reasons for official purposes. Thus, not only does the
Employment Law discriminate against a foreign teacher’s tenure rights,
but it deprives a foreign teacher of even basic human rights of due
process, defense, and presumption of innocence. The teaching
organization can then notify the foreign police and have that foreign
teacher repatriated within three days, depriving him or her, practically
speaking, of a right to appeal.
If the teacher should appeal to the Ministry of Education, citing
Article 14 of the Teacher’s Law, the Ministry will rule that it does not
protect foreign teachers, regardless how long they have taught in our
country and regardless of the protections enjoyed by Taiwan professors
in other countries. In addition, not only is the Employment Law
discriminatory in itself, but it deprives foreign teachers of a
"Grandfather" protection, which is a basic legal protection of all laws
passed in democratic countries. If a Grandfather clause was actually
intended in the original Employment Law, then your readers should be
informed that the law is being improperly enforced. Readers will ask if
the above scenario is merely theoretical. Yet the fact is that it is a
true case happening now in the country and the Ministry has done nothing
to correct such abuses.
One wonders if the Minister of Education and his staff sincerely believe
that such a discriminatory policy will attract dedicated foreign
language teachers to help in the country’s language-teaching program.
More probably, when the international academic community becomes fully
informed of our discriminatory policies, the R.O.C. will be the laughing
stock of the world. I therefore plead with the country’s highest
authority to eliminate current abuses against foreign teachers in our
country. Thus foreign teachers properly hired by our teaching and
research institutes will be treated equally and fairly.
For all foreign teachers should have the same tenure rights enjoyed by
their Chinese colleagues, as stated in the Teacher’s Laws. Otherwise our
country’s stated educational goals are merely empty show.
Your sincerely,

Ray Da Tong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
National Cheng Kung University
Director,
National Cheng Kung University
Teachers Union
email: raydon@mail.ncku.edu.tw