In Taiwan, a high portion of the population now in their 60s or older had minimal education, and 59 percent of those over 70 are illiterate. These include those who were deprived of education because of extreme poverty, employment obligations to help support families, and Japanese restrictions on education during the occupation of Taiwan.
Now that overall literacy is above 98 percent, and thanks to the island's wealth and rising standards of living, both governmental and private organizations are focusing their efforts on providing elderly residents with a second chance at formal education.
Senior citizen response has been overwhelmingly positive, indicating that expanded programs in the public and private sector are necessary. To senior citizens in Taiwan, the adage "Never cease studying as long as you live" is now becoming a reality.
Although various trial balloons were floated concerning education for the elderly in the past 20 years, only in 1982 was any concrete action taken when the first Evergreen Academy was established by the city government of Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest city.
Dozens of Evergreen Academies are now in operation, with a total enrollment approaching 20,000. Administered in most cases by city or county governments, each institution offers a curriculum combining formal learning opportunities with other activities geared to provide a comfortable and stimulating environment where senior citizens can study, make friends, and simply pass the time in an enjoyable setting.
Currently, Evergreen Academies, usually referred to as "Evergreen" locally, serve approximately one of every 50 senior citizens (usually referring to those at least 55 years old), but government administrators insist that expansion is underway, despite the usual bureaucratic difficulties in implementing programs as rapidly as people demand. Since Taiwan's elders personally sacrificed so much to help the island achieve its "economic miracle," there is a growing local constituency calling for guarantees that they will experience much more than boredom and loneliness during their retirement years.
A visit to the Taipei Evergreen Academy illustrates why the educational programs have become an instant success. Even though it is a cold winter morning made even more uncomfortable by a persistent drizzling rain, the students have arrived early for their special class in English. In faces now heavily lined, surrounded by white hair, and with bifocal glasses, there is still youthful enthusiasm. Their ages range from 55 to 90, and most never dreamed they would be attending school at this age, let alone studying English. But government statistics indicate that the attitude of this class is typical: fully two-thirds of the local senior citizens would attend classes if they were available and conveniently located.
Entrance requirements are minimal. Anyone over 55 can register at Evergreen for courses that include humanities, social sciences, economics, health care, and basic craft and self-help skills. Classes are complemented with special-interest clubs and special seminars about current events, literature, or science.
The content of the curriculum has been designed in response to the findings from opinion polls about the demand for specific subjects. The most popular categories thus far are language study (including Mandarin, because many older Taiwan residents speak Taiwanese, Hakka, or Japanese more fluently than the official dialect), calligraphy, painting, and singing. Mandarin classes are particularly popular because senior citizens then have greater comprehension of radio and TV programs, and can communicate better with their grandchildren.
Semesters last five months, with most classes held four hours each week, and the students have active roles in devising and directing many of the classes and activities. They choose class leaders, and even have their own autonomous student government. Evergreen issues honorary diplomas upon completion of each course.
An Evergreen Academy class demonstrates that age puts no limits on enthusiasm for learning.
The Kaohsiung city government and the YWCA jointly established the first Evergreen college in 1982. Bai Hsiu-hsiung, who was director of the Bureau of Social Affairs of Kaohsiung when the project began and now holds the same post in the Taipei city government, recalls that the authorities at first did not enthusiastically embrace plans for the college. "The idea was unprecedented, and costly," he says. "It took a great deal of wrangling, but the government eventually agreed to release the necessary funds. Evergreen immediately proved worth the investment — 1,200 students registered during the first year. Most were male, but in recent years more females are showing an interest."
Bai hopes the educational services will eventually reach all communities, and says that this could be expedited by shifting funding and administrative responsibility away from the Bureau of Social Affairs. "In Taipei, the Bureau of Education has a budget 10 times larger than mine," he says. "Educational programs for senior citizens have to be sponsored with the help of private organizations and churches because of our lack of money. We find we must depend on volunteers, including the old people themselves, to carry out many of our activities. My department is meant for basic social welfare, not educational programs. Education for senior citizens doesn't deserve the run-around it's received."
In fact, all educational programs in the ROC are receiving closer attention of late as educators and government officials alike seek to upgrade the whole system. Literacy skyrocketed in recent decades, and the government constructed additional educational infrastructure, including public libraries, gymnasiums, museums, and lecture halls. But the law on social education promulgated in 1980 stipulated that the right to a life-long education would be guaranteed for all citizens. Thus, the Evergreen program is part of a general mandate. Nevertheless, because of the need to upgrade high tech and graduate education islandwide, programs for elderly, who do not contribute directly to current economic growth, have suffered in comparison with other areas of educational funding.
The Evergreen network also suffers from a lack of consistent policy. "Each college ends up making its own rules and setting different standards," Bai says. "Some are free and others charge fees, and course content in one branch may not match another. Neither the Ministry of the Interior nor the educational authorities have taken any noteworthy steps to standardize the system. What is needed is a clear national policy to guide the actions of local governments in this area. "
Tsai Han-hsien, director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, was responsible for establishing the Taipei Evergreen Academy. He is also a trained sociologist specializing in issues related to aging. "The problems of senior citizens were not really serious in Taiwan until recently," he says. "But now we must find a way to care for them and put their skills to use. The government is naturally restrained with its funds, and that is always an obstacle. Perhaps we don't need many high-paid professional teachers at places like Evergreen, since numerous senior citizens are retired diplomats, calligraphers, or specialists in technical fields. They themselves are quite qualified to teach. Even a woman who knows only how to make a good salad might contribute something by giving a lecture in a cooking class. Another way to expand services at minimal expense might be to open the Evergreen schools longer than the current eight hours per day."
A rich resource — senior citizens often share their skills with teachers and classmates.
Well-meaning as these suggestions may be, many senior citizens at Evergreen seem to disagree, and do indeed ask for more professional teachers. Because the central government is reluctant at this time to open more schools and expand staff, the Bureau of Social Affairs of Taipei has helped give senior citizens access to high-level instructors by initiating a cooperative program with three local universities.
This joint program began in 1987, and it permits the same people eligible for Evergreen to take classes either for credit or as auditors at National Chung Hsing University, Soochow University, and National Taiwan University. Most of the elderly applicants to the universities so far are retired government employees with high school or college credentials, aged 60 to 69.
The majority of the students at all Evergreen programs still come from the upper or upper-middle income brackets, with about 29 percent of them retired government employees. Tsai says this is due primarily to lack of publicity, and that the situation will improve if social workers simply make more effort to inform the public of what facilities are available.
Modernization in Taiwan, with the associated fragmentation of families as children move to urban centers in search of employment, is breaking up the traditional protective unit of the extended family. In addition, the mandatory retirement age is now 65, no matter how healthy or energetic a person may feel. Senior citizens thus find themselves deprived of two major social environments. Bored and frustrated, they complain they are "too old to work and too young to die."
Going to school for recreation and classwork is made even more enjoyable because there are no exams.
But Evergreen has provided a compelling alternative to staying forever occupied with inane TV programs. The classes and activities offer senior citizens the opportunity to enjoy years of activity in the company of friends with whom they share common intellectual and spiritual pursuits. And Evergreen students do not have to be dedicated students. They are not in hot pursuit of high grades. Some already have more advanced education than their teachers, and nearly everyone attends classes for immediate satisfaction, not to qualify for college entrance exams. Instead of long hours in the library, they can play ping pong or relax over a chess board without heavy homework worries.
Many do have clear educational goals, however, due in part to the increasing numbers of aged people traveling abroad to visit relatives. The demand for English or Japanese lessons is exploding. Liu Tau-kang, a retired army officer, has been taking English lessons for 12 years. "Both my son-in-law and daughter-in-law are Americans," he says. "I take English classes so I can communicate with them. This has been my hobby since I retired."
While the government is upgrading senior citizen activities, added assistance is needed from private organizations and volunteers.
Some of the students in English classes are still active professionals, such as 67-year-old Professor Huang Tseng-szu, who teaches at the Department of Business Administration at Soochow University. "I come here for more than simply learning English," he says. "I want to watch the teachers and the student responses to get ideas on how to improve my own teaching. The classes are also free, a nice change from other English courses available in the city."
Kang Ching-yueh, another educator-turned-student at Evergreen, stopped teaching primary school 18 years ago after her husband died. "I lapsed into continual sickness and despondency," she says of the ordeal. "But my son encouraged me to keep active and overcome my loneliness. These days I take English classes, sing in the YWCA chorus, and enjoy folk dancing with a club. That's not bad for an old woman with eight grandchildren! Sometimes I'm so busy I can't come to my English class. "
One volunteer teacher who counts himself a friend among many of the elderly pupils is Wang Chih-yuan, who instructs full-time at the Taipei Municipal Teachers College when he is not at Evergreen. Though the work at Evergreen pays little, Wang enjoys it immensely. "Most of these elderly people are more active than my students at the Teachers College," he says. "They ask many more questions, and I find myself learning as much from them as they learn from me."
Such comments indicate optimism and enthusiasm about the educational services for senior citizens in Taiwan. As the percentage of the population above retirement age continues to grow, additional programs will be needed to meet their requirements. Planning for this eventuality is a duty of conscience, a point eloquently expressed three decades ago in a report on senior citizens by the UN World Health Organization that still rings true: "It is not only for the sake of the aged themselves that we must try to raise their conditions of life to a level of dignity — it is also for the sake of their children." The Evergreen Academies have demonstrated that hunger for knowledge knows no age limits. It is a pursuit that both enlightens and improves the quality of life.
Help From The Private Sector
The Evergreen Academies are by no means the only educational facilities available to senior citizens, although they are the only ones supported by public funding. Private schools for the elderly exist throughout Taiwan, but most charge fees.
Lu Hsien-liang is one educational entrepreneur who decided to enter the business of targeting senior citizens in search of goal-oriented studies. Already the owner of a successful night school operation, the 40-year-old Lu recognized that many senior citizens missed out on even the most basic education when young.
"My mother died just a short time after I began living with her again in Panchiao [an industrial suburb of Taipei with a population of about 400,000]," Lu recalls. "It was then that I began to notice the large number of senior citizens in my neighborhood with nowhere to go. My own school was empty during the day, since the students only came in the evenings. So, I decided to make better use of the space by providing the elderly with a facility where they could make friends and learn something in the process.
"In March 1983, I founded a private version of Evergreen, which I named Pai Kang Evergreen Class, in memory of my mother. Because I only had a high school education myself, I deeply understand the pain and inconvenience ignorance brings, as well as the joy of learning. "
Students pay an annual tuition of US$35. One-third of the fee is for classroom maintenance and two-thirds is refunded if they finish a course. "I wish I could give the classes free," he says. "But charging a nominal fee helps make people cherish the opportunity to study. In any case, what money I do make with these classes is reserved only for the students. The real financial support for Pai Kang comes from my night school." Another payoff is closer to home: "My father teaches a class in Japanese," Lu says, "and enjoys it very much."
The classrooms in Pai Kang, with their plywood partitions, worn-out desks, and limited space, can hardly compare to the quality facilities of the Evergreen network. But Lu makes up for the deficiency by using good teachers. "All my instructors are volunteers, many with regular jobs," he says. "They sacrifice their free time to work for me, and I owe them a great debt. One of my teachers is a retired 70-year-old professor who teaches Chinese poetry to the senior citizens. He even insists on paying his own transportation fees. What I have done in managing this program is nothing compared to what the teachers have done to make it a success."
Most of the time, classes at Pai Kang are filled to capacity. Attendance consistently exceeds Lu's expectations. Students are known to attend the classes for years, and many have actually gained literacy after a lifetime of not knowing how to either read or write.
"One elderly woman began taking classes in Mandarin six years ago," Lu says. "She was totally illiterate, but after a few years she could read the newspaper and primary school textbooks."
Lu's satisfaction with his special project is evident in his conversation, and clearly the senior citizens at Pai Kang enjoy themselves. But the school is small, and serves a tiny fraction of the population. Lu comments that other such schools in the private sector are few, and many have exclusive barriers to membership. "We need many more places like Pai Kang before the senior citizens of our society will really be able to live out their final years in the comfort and satisfaction they deserve."