Since the return of Taiwan to China the Provincial Government, despite financial stringency, steadily increased its educational appropriations and consequently enlarged the scope of education. At the end of 1949 the Chinese mainland was lost to the Communists and the Chinese Government moved to Taiwan. With the effort of the Chinese Government its education has been greatly developed. The numbers of schools and students have increased with accelerated speed. Thus in the spring semester of 1953 there were 42 kindergartens with 28,531 students, 1,251 primary schools with 1,003,304 students 130 high schools with 93,564 students, 8 normal schools with 6,350 students, 77 vocational schools with 40,092 students and 8 institutions of higher learning with 9,925 students. What a contrast with the figures of the academic year 1943-44. We see the number of primary school students increase by almost 130,000 (the percentage of school-age children attending schools increased from 71.31 to 84) that of high school students by more than threefold and that of college students by more than fourfold. If we deduct Japanese students from the figure for 1943-44 then the number of high school students increased more than seven times while that of college students increased almost nineteen times. When we add to these figures 458 high school students, 47 normal school students and 6,953 primary school students on Kinmen and Ta-chen islands, then Free China had in the spring semester, 1953 altogether 1,189,224 students. Since the summer vacation a new college and some new high schools and primary schools have been established and hundreds of additional classes have been set up in the existing schools, so when all colleges and schools have completed their registration at the end of September there will be over 1,250,000 students in Free China. As Free China has a population of nearly nine million it means there is a student out of every seven persons.
During the last eight years and especially the last four years education in Free China has grown, but not without growing pains. Owing to financial stringency and especially to the shortage of foreign exchange the Central and the Provincial Governments have not been able to appropriate enough funds each year for new buildings, new books and new scientific and technical equipment to meet the needs of colleges and schools. The student body in an institution may have grown three, four, or five times but the increase of buildings, books and equipment has lagged far behind. Take the National Taiwan University for instance. It had 700 students when the Chinese Government took over. It has now more than 4,000. But only a few new buildings and some new books and equipment have been added to those existing under the Japanese rule. Consequently there is a pressing need for more buildings, more books and more equipment. Some help is coming from the China Foundation and also from the U.S. economic aid to China but it is not yet sufficient to meet the requirements of so large a student body.
Then there is the problem of shortage of teachers. Under the Japanese regime practically all the college professors, 90 percent of the secondary school teachers, and 47 percent of the primary school teachers were Japanese. After the war all these professors and teachers except a few were repatriated to Japan. There was at once created a vacuum in the teaching profession. Professors and teachers has to be secured from the mainland but not many were willing to come at that time. Since the loss of the mainland many intellectuals and experts have fled to Taiwan and have taken up teaching jobs in colleges and schools. The National Taiwan University, the Provincial Teachers' College and the Provincial Normal Schools have provided a number of teachers for secondary and primary schools. The gap has been gradually filled up. But even today there are still college courses which no professors can be found to teach, some high schools have difficulties in getting competent teachers to teach science courses and many primary schools have to appoint substitute teachers because of lack of normal school graduates.
Since its removal to Taiwan nearly four years ago the Chinese Government has endeavored not only spread education but also to reform it. On March 20, 1950 the Chinese Government presented its platform in the Legislative Yuan. With regard to education it provided that in order to meet the needs of the time, the aims of education should be: "to develop the moral character of the people in the direction of cooperation and fraternity, to denounce the false doctrine of class struggle so as to eradicate the contamination of Communism, to strengthen confidence in the final victory over Communism and Soviet imperialism, to render aid to displaced persons in educational, cultural and technical fields, and to guide and assist youth who are out of school to participate in the gigantic work of national salvation." In June of the same year the Ministry of Education, in order to implement the educational platform, adopted a detailed program for the present anti-Communist period. This program consists of 26 articles too lengthy to be quoted here. But from its nine topical headings we can see its main points. These headings are (1) intensification of ideological warfare, (2) aid to youth who have no schooling, (3) revision of the educational system, (4) revision of curricula and textbooks, (5) reward for academic research, (6) emphasis on social order and morality, (7) employment of scholars and experts, (8) international cultural cooperation, and (9) preparation for re-education on the mainland. They remain to be the guiding principles of Free China's education.
In the colleges and schools the Ministry of Education has since 1950 endeavored to achieve three things. First of all is the emphasis on moral teaching. Confucianism, the corner-stone of Chinese culture, is fundamentally humanistic. It emphasizes human relationship. It teaches us how to be a good father, a good son, a good brother, a good husband, a good wife, a good friend, a good ruler, and a good citizen. It advocates righteousness, social justice, kindness, universal brotherhood, dignity of man, and academic freedom. For this reason Chinese education has for two thousand years, always taught the importance of ethics and morality to society and to individuals. But since the adoption of the modern school system at the beginning of the present century there has been a tendency to over-emphasize knowledge at the negligence of ethics and morality. Children and youth are taught to learn Chinese, English, mathematics, history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, etc, and are graded as good or poor students according to their examination marks; while their conduct and morals are generally neglected. Persons who have some knowledge but very little moral conviction fall easy preys to sinister doctrines and organizations. That is why before the fall of the mainland so many Chinese students were misled by the Communists and became Communist tools to the detriment to their country and also to themselves. Many such students regret now what they have done to help the Communist cause, but it is too late.
Here in Free China we certainly do not want to commit the same error. We fully realize that in order to defeat Communism we must have moral as well as military and economic strength. In schools and colleges we now pay as much attention to character building as to the acquisition of knowledge. We teach children and youth to grow up into good men and women above everything else. Traditional moral standards such as loyalty, filial piety, kindness, faithfulness, justice, peacefulness, propriety, integrity, and the sense of shame are taught in textbooks and, lectures and students ate required to practise them in their daily life. New textbooks on Chinese, civics, history and geography besides moral teaching emphasize the national spirit and culture so that patriotism can be aroused in the hearts of the youth. College students are required to study the history of Russian aggression in China and contemporary international relations so that they can understand the aggressiveness of the Soviet policy and the nature of the struggle between democracy and world Communism.
Second comes the stress on manual and productive work. For a thousand years the Ko-Chu system prevailed in China. Scholars were required to write compositions and poems in certain styles and to undergo three successive examinations. When they passed the local examination they were given the title "Siu-Tsai"; the provincial examination, the title "Chu-Jen"; and the national examination, the title "Chin-Sze". After that they were appointed to be government officials. Under such a system naturally the scholars acquired only bookish knowledge and had very little to do with the practical side of life. Not only they did not do any productive work themselves but they despised those who had to earn a living by manual labor or trade. Consequently the educated men became a privileged class while farmers, laborers, and traders received little or no education.
The Ko-Chu System was abolished by the Manchu Government at the beginning of the present century but its ghost has haunted us ever since. On the mainland students regarded themselves as a special class and refused to do manual or productive work. After graduation they expected to be employed by the government and had neither the intention nor the ability to earn a living. When the government could not employ them they became jobless and created an acute social problem. Many of them were thus lured by the Communists to join their camp and do subversive work.
We certainly do not want such a condition to be repeated in Free China. In March 1952 the Ministry of Education proclaimed regulations ordering all primary and secondary schools to procure grounds and equipment such as farms, vegetable gardens, workshops, machines, tools, books, etc., for productive education. Primary school students from the 5th grade up are required to form the habit of manual work such as cleaning classrooms, sweeping grounds, removing sewage, and to do light productive work such as raising chickens and pigs, growing vegetables, etc., while girl students are taught sewing and cooking. The older the students get, the heavier is their productive work. In vocational schools and technical colleges class work is curtailed while practice and field work is increased. Due to the lack of funds productive education has not come up to our expectations. But the idea towards manual work is changing.
Third is military training for senior high school and college students. In ancient China education had a military as well as a literary side. Confucius taught his disciples six things: rites, music, archery, carriage-driving, writing and mathematics, forming a harmonious combination of literary and military education. At that time all educated men could bear arms to defend their country when there was any foreign invasion. Later on military education was separated from literary education. In the Sung Dynasty military training was looked down upon by scholars as something barbarous. Since then China has become a weak nation and was twice conquered by foreign tribes. With the establishment of the modern school system military drill was introduced for a short while and was abolished. After the establishment of the National Government at Nanking in 1927 military, training was again adopted in high schools and colleges but was once more abolished at the end of the Second World War.
At this time of national emergency we deem it urgent to restore military training in our schools and colleges. Since the autumn semester of 1951 all normal school students have been required to receive military training with nurse training for girl students. Since the spring semester of 1953 military training has been applied to senior vocational schools. It will soon be applied to colleges. In August 1952 an epoch-making event took place in the history of Chinese education. Eleven hundred college graduates went to Feng Shan collectively and were enrolled in the military academy. They received one-year reserve officer's training and were graduated in July, 1953. This year sixteen hundred college graduates are receiving the same training. Senior high school, normal school, and senior vocational school graduates, except those who will pursue advanced studies in colleges, will receive four months military training to qualify them as privates in reserve. All these measures are to make educated Chinese able to fight for their country when called to the colors and different from the old-fashioned scholars who were usually so weak that they "could hardly catch a chicken," as the phrase goes.
School education in Free China has steadily developed but social education is lagging behind. Social education may be divided into two kinds; one is to eliminate illiteracy while the other is to give the general public some supplementary education either to acquire knowledge or to learn a trade. The instruments by which illiteracy is being eliminated are mass evening classes. According to the provincial census of 1949 there were 1,367,155 adults (35.6% of the adult population) who did not have any schooling. The Provincial Department of Education has adopted a five-year program to wipe out illiteracy. Every primary school in the province is required to conduct at least one mass evening class which offers a four-month course to teach such adults reading, writing, simple arithmetic, and the basic knowledge of citizenship. In 1951, 126,592, and in 1952, 198,273 persons were graduated from such classes. The goal for this year is 360,000 persons.
There are various types of institutions which give supplementary education to the masses. They include supplementary schools, schools for the deaf and blind, homes for orphans and destitute children, public libraries, museums, art galleries, zoological and botanical gardens, public parks, playgrounds, theatres, broadcasting stations, etc. The number of such institutions is very small when compared with that of schools.
In order to promote social education the Ministry of Education set up in May 1950 the Social Education Extension Committee. This Committee has, since its establishment, promoted many educational activities such as plays, concerts, art exhibitions, literary contests, and physical exercises to arouse patriotic and anti-Communist sentiment and to create a deeper interest in Chinese history and culture among the masses. Special attention has been paid to the use of radio, moving pictures and lantern slides for educational purposes. The Committee has shot several educational films and many lantern slides and the Ministry has donated to each municipality and district a 16 mm projector for showing educational films to the public. An educational radio network has also been set up. Twice a day a fifteen-minute program is broadcast on educational subjects and more than 40,000 people listen to the program regularly at the 411 receiving stations.
A word must be said about the international cultural relations of Free China. Although China is in desperate need of foreign exchange, the Ministry of Education has tried its best to maintain cultural relations with the democratic world. Every year we send a delegation to attend the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and cooperate with it in more ways than one. Owing to the loss of the mainland we cannot afford to pay our contributions to UNESCO in full but for the last four years we have made a token payment of 25,000 annually. Satellites of Soviet Russia tried in the 1950 and 1951 Conferences to unseat the Chinese delegation and to invite the Chinese Communists regime to participate in the Conferences, but they failed in both attempts. UNESCO has helped us by donating scholarships, books and scientific apparatuses. Last year the Chinese Government signed an agreement with UNESCO to the effect that the latter would send an expert together with equipment worth $10,000 to promote audio-visual education in Free China. The expert, Dr. Overend, arrived in October 1952 and the work is to continue for two years.
The Mutual Security Agency (now the FOA) through its Mission to China, has in the last two years appropriated funds for a program of educational cooperation. This program has resulted in financial help to the National Taiwan University and in agreements between the Provincial Teachers College and Pennsylvania State College, and between the Provincial College of Engineering and Purdue University for cooperation in the fields of vocational education and engineering, including aid in books and equipment and the exchange of professors. Recently M.S.A. Mission to China has cooperated with the Provincial Department of Education to improve the engineering schools and establish community center schools.
Before the loss of the mainland thousands of Chinese students went abroad to pursue advanced studies. After the removal of the Chinese Government to Taiwan up to September 1952 the Ministry of Education approved the application of 796 students to study abroad, including both self-supporting and scholarship students. Most of these students went to the United States with a few going to Canada, France, Italy, and the Philippines. In July 1953, 281 college graduates took part in the examination held by the Ministry of Education for students going abroad and 233 passed successfully. But so far only a few of them have left. Besides, the American State Department selected through the M.S.A. Mission to China 75 college graduates and Government employees to do research and field work in the U.S. The United Nations is awarding each year a few scholarships and fellowships to Chinese scholars and officials in the fields of public administration, economic development and social welfare.
According to the latest estimate there are about 4,000 Chinese students studying abroad, including about 3,000 in the U.S., 500 in Japan, 100 each in France and Italy, 50 in Great Britain and the rest in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and Latin American countries. Besides there are about 2,400 Chinese students in the U.S. who have graduated and left school but are working on farms and in factories, mines, schools, shops and private or government offices. Again there are over 500 Chinese professors, engineers, physicians and surgeons in the U.S., most of whom fled from the Communist tyranny on the mainland after 1949 and who are teaching or doing research work in universities, corporations or hospitals. These scholars, technicians, experts and students serve as channels through which the exchange of ideas and the free flow of culture between China and the democratic countries take place. This will foster a genuine spirit of mutual understanding and promote international good will and cooperation.