Powerless in the classroom: Why Taiwanese teachers are quitting

(Edited and refined by Candice Chan, with the assistance of AI translation.)

A prestigious junior high school in Taipei failed to fill seven physics and chemistry teaching vacancies in this year’s recruitment exercise, thrusting Taiwan’s teacher shortage back into the public spotlight.

Wu Ming-chieh, a civics and social studies teacher at the Affiliated Chu Pei Senior High School of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said the shortage was not confined to any particular school or subject, but reflected a broader struggle across the education sector to attract and retain talent.

From classrooms to chip factories

Speaking to Lianhe Zaobao (LHZB), Wu said the rapid expansion of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry in recent years had drawn many science and engineering graduates who might otherwise have considered teaching into the technology sector, making it one of the main factors behind the shortage of mathematics and science teachers.

Wu, who also chairs his school’s teachers’ association, noted that senior high school students’ academic preferences had shifted markedly in recent years, with more gravitating towards the sciences. The trend has become especially pronounced over the past five or six years.

“Take our school. We have 15 classes. In the past, about half would have chosen the humanities and social sciences stream. Now there are only two classes.”

Wu said that, with industrial growth and job prospects increasingly favouring science and engineering, more students were choosing these fields, and were subsequently more likely to enter the technology sector than pursue teacher training.

The shortage of physics and chemistry teachers is also evident in this year’s junior high school recruitment figures. Among Taiwan’s six special municipalities, Taipei advertised 56 vacancies for physics and chemistry teachers but managed to recruit only 30. Taoyuan offered 41 positions but filled just 19, while New Taipei had 20 vacancies and recruited only 10 teachers.

One in three qualified teachers does not enter the profession

The shortage in Taiwan extends well beyond physics and chemistry teachers. Amid a falling birth rate, mounting pressures on teachers and changing career preferences among younger generations, teaching — once regarded as a secure “iron rice bowl” — is steadily losing its appeal.

The Ministry of Education’s annual statistics on teacher training show that, as of 2024, around 230,000 people across Taiwan held teaching certificates, but only slightly more than 155,000 were actually working as teachers. This leaves some 75,000 qualified teachers outside the profession, with those qualified to teach at junior and senior high schools making up the largest group, at close to 40%.

Schools are struggling to recruit even as tens of thousands of qualified teachers remain outside the classroom. Wu believes the technology sector’s powerful pull has merely brought the loss of teaching talent into sharper relief. The school incident review meeting system introduced in recent years, he said, has been the final straw.

Following sweeping amendments to Taiwan’s Teachers’ Act in 2019, the Ministry of Education introduced the school incident review meeting system in August 2020 to investigate and deal with teachers deemed unsuitable for the profession.

When discipline becomes a liability

Wu passed Taiwan’s bar examination in 2019 and has since been frequently invited to schools to speak about how teachers can protect themselves. He said the review system was originally intended to allow independent third parties to investigate and deal with unsuitable teachers. In practice, however, it has become mired in controversy, with parents allegedly abusing the mechanism to lodge complaints against teachers.

According to media reports, a parent reported a teacher in July for writing on the blackboard the class numbers of students who had not submitted their homework as a reminder. The parent accused the teacher of “publicly shaming and labelling the child”, and the school ultimately ruled the action inappropriate discipline.

Wu said writing students’ class numbers on the blackboard to remind them to submit their homework had long been commonplace in Taiwanese schools. The fact that teachers could now face complaints and even formal investigations for doing so made this “one of the most absurd examples” he had encountered.

“I believe most teachers genuinely want what is best for their students and are willing to go the extra mile. But now it feels as though a small minority of students have poured cold water on that enthusiasm, so that many teachers have become very passive.”

Vincent Yeh Ching-chi, who took over as chairman of the National Federation of Teachers Unions in Taiwan in June, has made abolishing the school incident review meeting system one of his priorities.

He said teachers now face a dilemma disciplining students: the law requires them to take responsibility for student discipline, yet in practice they must tread carefully at every turn for fear that the slightest misstep could trigger a complaint.

“The law tells teachers: do you need to discipline students? Yes. But you have to be careful how you do it.”

Yeh, who has served as an investigator for school incident review meetings, recalled a complaint he had handled against a teacher. A student secretly recorded the teacher’s remarks over a month, compiling them into a list of grievances that the student’s parent then used to lodge a complaint.

“I found it deeply upsetting, and I was also very angry. What other profession could be treated this way? This is bordering on psychological abuse of teachers.”

The complaint was ultimately not upheld, but Yeh said the teacher had already endured enormous psychological strain during the investigation. Such “horror stories”, he believes, can have a particularly strong impact on newly qualified and substitute teachers, with some young people deciding against pursuing a permanent teaching career.

Teachers resort to ‘defensive teaching’

To avoid becoming embroiled in school incident review proceedings, some teachers have adopted what has become known as “defensive teaching” — limiting themselves to the most basic duties required of them as a form of self-protection.

Yeh said that in the past, a teacher who noticed a student struggling in a particular area might have gone out of their way to offer extra guidance. But when trust between parents and teachers breaks down, even attempts to tailor teaching to a student’s needs can be interpreted as: “Why are you picking on my child?”

“I might as well just do enough to get 60 marks — the bare minimum. I’ll simply fulfil my obligations as a teacher.”

Facing growing opposition from educators, the Ministry of Education revised the rules again in January, banning anonymous complaints and strengthening screening to keep minor or unfounded cases from reaching school incident review meetings.

Complaints have fallen markedly since the new rules took effect. Ministry of Education figures show that 313 complaints were lodged across Taiwan in the first five months of this year, nearly half the 586 recorded over the same period last year. The proportion of complaints rejected at the initial stage rose from 18% to 35%, while the proportion referred to school incident review meetings plunged from 82% to 22%.

There is still no consensus on how the system should be reformed. In late July, the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee sent the Ministry of Education’s proposed amendments back for redrafting, meaning the revised system introduced earlier this year is already set for further changes.

Despite calls from within the education sector to abolish school incident review meetings altogether, Wu believes there are genuine cases of inappropriate discipline in schools that need to be addressed. The system’s purpose, he said, should not be rejected wholesale simply because it has also led to controversy over frivolous or excessive complaints.

Wu and Yeh differ on whether the system should be abolished, but both believe there should be a cost to lodging frivolous complaints. Until broader reforms are finalised, they suggest requiring complainants to pay an upfront fee, which would fund an investigation if the complaint is substantiated but be forfeited if the allegations prove groundless.

Undeterred young teachers

Even as Taiwan grapples with its teacher shortage and the controversy surrounding school incident review meetings, some young people are still choosing to enter the profession.

Lin Yu-hsiang (pseudonym), 31, previously worked as a substitute teacher. Determined to become fully qualified, he returned to graduate school to complete a teacher-training programme and formally began a six-month teaching practicum in August this year. Once he completes the placement, he will be eligible for a teaching certificate and can apply for permanent teaching positions.

Lin already knows permanent teachers who have left the profession after becoming physically and mentally exhausted. Some of his graduate-school classmates have also quit teaching and are preparing to move into the technology sector.

Asked whether he worries about facing complaints from parents in future, Lin acknowledged: “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. But if I became so worried that I didn’t dare do anything at all, that would be such a shame.”

Lin believes every student is different, and hopes education can help each of them discover their own strengths and find something they genuinely enjoy.

“I still have my own ideals about education, and there are things I want to achieve through teaching. If I let this hold me back and stop me from fulfilling those aspirations, I think that would be an even greater shame.”

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “从名校缺师到教师求自保 台湾“铁饭碗”为何失色”.

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