Nearly one-third of elementary and junior high school teachers in Taiwan do not wish to continue in their teaching career, according to reports quoting the results of an opinion poll released Friday.
With the approach of Teacher's Day, which falls on September 28,the 1111 Job Bank e-mailed questionnaires to selected public school teachers around the island between September 18 and September 25 to explore their level of job satisfaction and a total of 1,244 valid replies were collected, said the reports reaching here from Taipei.
The survey results showed that job satisfaction is generally low among school teachers at the primary and secondary levels, with the average score regarding their feelings about their job being 58.74 points on a "zero-to-100" scale, below the 60-point passing grade.
Meanwhile, 30.87 percent of the respondents said they don't wish to continue in their teaching career, and 29.9 percent said they plan to quit within five years.
The main reasons cited by the respondents for their unwillingness to continue in their teaching career include low pay, poor welfare benefits, long work hours, an inferior working environment and few channels for promotion, in that order.
A similar survey conducted by the private King Car Education Foundation found that an overwhelming majority of elementary school teachers feel their social status has declined due to a combination of factors, according to the reports.
The non-profit private foundation sent out 1,200 questionnaires early this month to selected elementary school teachers, collecting 928 valid samples.
The survey found 91 percent of the respondents said they feel that the social status of teachers has gradually declined due to changing social values, too many negative media reports on teachers and a lack of respect from parents of school children.
Nevertheless, 55 percent of the school teachers surveyed still said students remain the biggest source of their enjoyment in teaching. In contrast, 26 percent said students have often made them unhappy with their job.
On the question of which area of elementary school education most needs to be strengthened, 30.19 percent mentioned moral education, 29.16 percent said character education and 19.7 percent mentioned life education.
On the question of what influences school children's thinking and behavior, the respondents cited parents' instruction, media reports, interaction with classmates and peers, and teachers' methods, in that order.
(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2002)
