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Taiwan’s alternative schools offer natural settings for learning

TAIPEI — To get to school every day, 11-year-old Allen Chen goes on an hour-long bus ride on winding, mountainous roads.

TAIPEI — To get to school every day, 11-year-old Allen Chen goes on an hour-long bus ride on winding, mountainous roads.

Nevertheless, he looks forward to classes at Seedling Experimental Primary School and is on his best behaviour in front of his teachers so that he will not be punished by being made to stay at home.

Ms Lee Yen-Hua, 41, moved her family from the Taipei suburbs to Taoyuan city so that her daughter can be near Renoir Creative School.

She recalled that she nearly gave up hope of finding a school for her special needs child. But her daughter, who is now seven years old, took to the school’s natural environs on their very first visit.

Ms Lee and her daughter, as well as Allen, are examples of how people in Taiwan are turning to “alternative schools” — despite their high fees — which have sprouted up since the 1990s, as parents sought more options amid growing dissatisfaction with national schools, which do not charge school fees.

There are about a dozen such schools across Taiwan.

For example, the annual fees for Seedling and Renoir are NT$124,000 and NT$215,000, respectively.

National Taipei University of Education Associate Professor Anita Chu said the alternative schools emerged when Taiwan’s economy was doing well and its society was opening up to new ideas. As a result, many young parents were wiling to take risks and opt for a different school environment for their children.

Observers also see these schools as a by-product of unhappiness with a stressful education system that parents felt over-emphasised rote learning and standardised testing.

Dr Chu added: “As university education becomes normalised in Taiwan … everyone is blindly following the trend of pursuing a degree.”

Like-minded citizens then got together to start alternative schools, which do not receive any government funding and are free to draw up their own curriculum.

When TODAY visited Seedling, students addressed their teachers by name and bantered with them. Teachers also used a tribunal system to settle arguments, where pupils play judge to the complaints raised by their peers and can decide on the rightful punishment for the “guilty” party.

In terms of academic lessons, the school — which has 95 students — offers only Mandarin and mathematics as compulsory subjects. Students can choose to study electives such as music and film studies and teachers design tests based on the needs of their students.

School Principal Huang Wei Ning said: “Seedling is more of a learning ground than a school … the student’s individuality is valued and there is a more equal relationship between teachers and pupils.”

Renoir, which started as a kindergarten in 1997 and expanded to offer primary education in response to parents’ requests, uses a theme-based approach for its lessons.

For instance, for a topic on trains, the class will learn about subjects ranging from the history of the automobile to the mechanics of train operations.

To assess the school’s 180 students, teachers use a variety of methods, including written tests and group projects. Every graduating batch also goes through a round-island bicycle trip lasting up to two weeks.

For these alternative schools, which are situated outside highly-urbanised Taipei city, natural surroundings become a teaching tool.

At Renoir, there are geese and goats, as well as a greenhouse. The classrooms have glass walls, allowing students to look outside.

Seedling, located in the mountainous Wulai district, uses a “back to basics” approach, as Ms Huang puts it. There are uneven walkways and rope swings that she said help children learn about safety.

The schools have full autonomy when it comes to recruitment and management of their teachers. At Seedling, prospective applicants do not need a teacher’s licence. Instead, they go through multiple teaching demonstrations and informal interviews.

Still, there are challenges in running alternative school models. Observers noted that students’ transition to public higher-learning institutes is an issue, along with a weakening Taiwan economy and declining birth rate.

Dr Chu noted that pupils of alternative schools have been used to “an environment where freedom and individuality is valued”. “Upon entering a traditional system with a focus on tests, wouldn’t all the (schools’) previous efforts be wasted?” she said.

Nevertheless, she added that the alternative schools have helped to shift parents’ mindsets away from focusing only on academics. However, due to the low fertility rate and the state of the economy, they might now be more inclined to choose the safer option and put their children in public schools, in the hope that they will have a stable career.

Ms Chen Ya-Huei, an Associate Editor of a parenting magazine in Taiwan, said these schools have been a positive addition to the education landscape, spurring reforms in the education system.

However, the impact is “limited”, she said. “There isn’t any concerted push by the alternative schools.”

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