Taipei and Kaohsiung announce new education investment plans

Taipei and Kaohsiung cities have announced new education investment plans ahead of the upcoming school semester. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an pledged 9.2 billion TWD over the next four years to establish Asia’s first ‘AI Education Center,’ alongside creating AI laboratories in high schools and providing AI assistants for teachers. The city also aims to reduce student-to-teacher ratios in elementary schools to 25 students per class.

In Kaohsiung, Mayor Chen Chi-mai announced that from the 115th academic year, public kindergarten teachers will receive full lunch subsidies. The city is also lowering the threshold for schools to establish information technology departments, allowing any school with 13 or more classes to do so. Additionally, Kaohsiung is restructuring its campus safety departments to better integrate bullying prevention and teacher misconduct management.

Separately, following the Ministry of Education’s decision to extend public kindergarten care hours from two to three hours daily, nine teacher unions have raised concerns. They argue that increasing subsidies for the third hour does not address the underlying issue of severe manpower shortages and excessive working hours for childcare staff. The unions are calling for improved labor protections and more stable staffing mechanisms rather than just increased hourly pay.