| BASIC DATA | |
| Official Country Name: | Taiwan, Province of China |
| Region: | East & South Asia |
| Population: | 22,191,087 |
| Language(s): | Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese (Min), Hakka |
| Literacy Rate: | 94% |
Taiwan, or the Republic of China (ROC), is an island nation located nearly 161 km (100 miles) off the southeast coast of mainland China. It is approximately 395 km (245 miles) long from north to south and 145 km (90 miles) across at its widest point. Since 1949, its largest city, Taipei, has been the seat of the Nationalist Chinese government, which is called the Guomindang (GMD) or Kuomintang (KM…
The Nationalist government's claim to rule Taiwan, which it considered a province, was originally predicated on its claim to rule all of China. However, the political reality is that the People's Republic of China (PRC) so strongly opposes Taiwan's independence that the 1947 Nationalist constitution has become more and more exclusively applied only to the island of Taiwan. Nev…
Compulsory Education: As mandated by the Compulsory Education Law of 1982 and its implementation guidelines of 1984, the basic structure of the educational system in Taiwan is based on a nine-year compulsory education program originally formulated in 1968 that is now referred to as the "Nine-year National Education Program." In order to emphasize its comprehensive scope, the former e…
Preprimary Education: The government of Taiwan has vaguely recognized the desire for early childhood education since 1902, but it was not until 1981 that an Early Childhood Education Law was finally enacted to develop kindergarten programs. Until quite recently, preprimary or kindergarten education in Taiwan was predominantly part of the private school system. As recently as 1968, private kinderg…
Although experimental programs such as "comprehensive" junior-senior high schools and "bilateral" high schools are becoming more commonplace, secondary education in Taiwan has customarily consisted of three main types: a senior academic high school, a senior vocational high school, and a five-year junior college. The normal ages for attending the first two are 15 to 18;…
Institutions of higher education in Taiwan are conventionally classified by both type and the level of overseeing authority. In descending order of rank, there are four basic classifications: universities, including research institutes or graduate-level programs; colleges, which at the undergraduate level represent the major subdivisions in universities; junior colleges, including both two- and th…
Despite the victory by the DPP opposition party in the 2000 election, the GMD continued to hold a slender majority (52.2 percent) of seats in the legislative Yuan (the main parliamentary body of the government), which allowed it to assert its education agenda. During the 40-year period in which the GMD has been in power, that agenda has had the same primary goals—to produce a loyal and educ…
Nonformal education in Taiwan has historically consisted of forms of social education that are designed to augment the levels of cultural education (for example, in fine arts, music, and dance) and vocational training (for example, cooking and traditional crafts). However, since the enactment of the remarkably inclusive Compulsory Education Law in 1982, almost all aspects of education in Taiwan ha…
As was the case in traditional China, teachers in modern Taiwan enjoy (even if only residually) a favored position as an elite class. In Taiwan, the term laoshi, (teacher) denotes a scholar who is entrusted with and responsible for the moral and instructional training of young people. One important symbolic indication of the respect that teachers continue to command in Taiwanese society is the fac…
Despite the many changes that either have occurred or are likely to occur, if there is a single overarching theme that can be said to characterize education in Taiwan, then it is probably centralization. Particularly in the last two decades, education has advanced at a pace on a par with Taiwan's burgeoning economy. But it has always done so in a manner that is prescriptive and congruent wi…
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User Comments
about 2 years ago
Without declaring UDI, it should be obvious that Taiwan is still part of the PRC depite many factors indicating otherwise. So, I guess, NOT so "de facto incorrect!"
almost 4 years ago
Official Country Name: Taiwan, Province of China ??????
????
This info makes people think that Taiwan is a province of the PRC, which is de facto incorrect!
Isn't it Taiwan, ROC or just TAIWAN?