From the Principal - Bringing every child up is the greatest treasure of the nation.

A few days ago, it was published in the newspapers that 200 000 primary and secondary school students in the Mainland have not attained the basic academic qualifications, and if we calculate on the basis of the 2 million primary and secondary school students in the country, they account for 10% of the total, and the ratio is far higher than those of Vietnam, Finland, Japan and Singapore, and the learning gap between the front-end and back-end students is even higher than that of the world's top students.

According to the results of the 2015 National Certificate of Education Examination (NCE), the percentage of students who need to be strengthened in the five subjects of Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Nature is 18%, 33%, 33%, 15%, and 23%, respectively, with the percentage of students who need to be strengthened in all five subjects accounting for about 7% of the total number of students.

It is worrying that these children are waiting to fail before they are old enough to grow up.

Education is the key to bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. Why are the results of the education reforms that have been carried out along the way still so questionable in today's society? This is a serious question that parents, teachers, heads of government, officials and even national leaders must face squarely.

An education forum organized by the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) suggested that the upcoming new government should not strengthen star schools in the future, but should regard education for the disadvantaged as a "national security issue" and invest resources in the most disadvantaged schools and students.

The current education situation in Taiwan is that a lot of educational resources are being invested in star schools, while the learning of disadvantaged students has been abandoned for a long time. It is worrying that most of the disadvantaged students come from families with lower-middle socio-economic backgrounds, which means that they are unable to change their social class through education.

Amartya Sen, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, said; "The more precisely the subsidy goes to the poor, the less it is wasted and the less it costs to achieve the desired goal."

Finland adopts a 1-to-1 teaching method in the lower grades of primary schools to ensure that every student has the same quality of learning. Education UK has also confirmed that eliminating the marking gap by the end of elementary school is the most effective way to help the disadvantaged.

The only way for an education system to maintain high performance is not to continue to reinforce the performance of star students, but to bring up every child.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), if all students in Taiwan have basic academic skills by 2030, the gross national product will increase by US$852 billion, which is 80% more than today. Studies have found that investing in disadvantaged students not only has a lower crime rate, but also has high economic benefits when put on the market in the future.

Today is May 20, the inauguration day of the new president and the first female president of Taiwan. We have high and great expectations for the new government, and we look forward to changes in Taiwan's society, be it political, economic, social, or educational, for the better, and more in line with the expectations of the people in a democratic society.

Bringing up every child is the greatest treasure of the nation.

Peace, health and happiness to your family.

Mandy