I have seen some difference in curriculum between private and public schools. I’m curious about how much better the private schools are.
My daughter is currently in Grade 8 in a public junior high. It is much cheaper than private school but the quality of education pretty much requires her to go to a high school anxingban(?) which is very expensive.
Is the education at private high school enough to avoid the extra classes? I’m just weighing up the options. If she can get a better education and not spend so much time at extra classes it would be great.
And I mean “standard” private schools, not TAS etc.
It depends on her entrance exam score. If it’s high, she can get into a public school as good or better than any private school. If not, a private high school may be better. If she’s sufficiently self-motivated, you can purchase three years of regularly updated HDD based video cram school classes that come with all the workbooks and message apps for answering questions for about the same price as a single semester of traditional after school classes. Those classes go into much more detail about most things than the normal high school classes, so expect to spend at least a few extra hours every day beyond normal homework and studying and an extra 6 to 8 hours per day on weekends if you plan to stay ahead of the school lessons as recommended.
If you’re in Taipei, the top four or five public schools will be high quality. The best for her would be the top all-girls school, but the name isn’t coming to me now. In most other cities, you’d be looking at the top two at best.
I know someone who’s daughter went to Fuxing (Welcome | 臺北市私立復興實驗高級中學) and she was at school until late (6 or 7 pm daily) and the expectation was that you go to cram school to make sure you fill in the gaps in what wasn’t covered in school. Apparently it’s not uncommon for “top private schools” to cover content outside the usual public school curriculum and also expect students to know both content from their school and the public school when it comes to testing. Just be aware of this. Be even more aware of “experimental” schools.
Thanks. That is interesting. So a good public school seems like a better choice. I’ve always thought the “experimental” in a school name sounded dodgy.
Usually, yes. It’s supposed to be a “non traditional” education school. Under TW law they’re actually “non educational systems” (非教育機構). The idea is that they don’t put pressure on students like public schools. I think? And they use alternative teaching methods that aren’t kill and drill (and test). I’ve yet to see one that didn’t make me feel like the worst public schools are better for students. But I’ve only been to experimental elementary schools, so I can’t speak on the high schools.
A general rule of thumb for education anywhere is to do your research by talking to people directly involved. Again, my experience is only with elementary, but “Montessori”, even when the teachers are certified by the Montessori Overlords (AMI/Association Montessori International), is usually just a traditional school approach + expensive , badly maintained wooden materials, Waldorf is usually Waldorf trained teachers + extremely cult like behavior + no free from of expression, and “international” as a school type means literally nothing, as plenty of cram schools call themselves “international”.
I like to think there are some real experimental schools out there, I just haven’t heard any legitimate feedback that’s positive from anyone on the subject. Then again, public high school kids don’t get out until late at night either. And they are expected to go to cram school if they want to pass the tests. If I were given the non-option your family has, I’d say try to get into the best school she can and decide how hard you want to push her. I personally see no value in being top of class in high school if you and all your peers lack any basic social skills or interests, but that’s kind of the goal of education in Asia, just generally…,
Depends if you want to attend university in Taiwan or abroad.
If you want to attend the top few universities in Taiwan, you better be near the top of your high school class or your chance of performing well on the entrance exam is slim.
One of the engineers at my last job went to an experimental highschool. She said they did stuff like pick a random student each day who had to go up and give an extemporaneous speech to the class. Sounded weird. On the other hand, she was an excellent engineer and generally much more well-rounded person than most I meet, so there’s that.
Private high schools have built-in extra classes so if you don’t want those they are the worst option. They usually want to speed up the curriculum to show that they are doing more relative to the top public schools, aka they just add more hours after school or during summer/winter holidays.
School work at public school is much more manageable, but many parents/students sign up for buxiban because they believe it helps with their studies (math and English are the most common subjects that kids go to buxiban for as math in Taiwanese high school is ridiculously difficult and English … is a problem for many pupils, followed by physics which is even MORE difficult but it’s optional from year 11 onward). If your kid has good grades in middle school she would be accepted into good high schools whose quality of education would be better than that of the shit ones. However, bear in mind that the top schools can be terrible in that the students are all smart and can study on their own so there would be many teachers phoning it in. These top schools also have a tendency of writing extremely difficult mid- and final term exams to advertise that they are more elite, thereby crushing their confidence. The good thing about these top schools is that they are freer relative to private schools which are often extremely medieval in their school rules … though in the context of Taiwan “freer” merely means students can slightly alter their uniform, can skip class occasionally, can dye their hair or paint their finger nails, and can order food delivery for lunch.
In short, public school is better in Taiwan, unless your daughter is mediocre/rubbish in her academic performance in middle school as in that case private school might be better.
I work at public highschool and coteach math and science so I’m familiar with the curriculum. Honestly, I don’t think buxiban is necessary. The biggest issue is that lessons are still mostly taught in lecture format and tests tend to be all multiple choice or close item. There isn’t much writing (in English or Chinese). This is because the national curriculum requires students to learn far too much in each subject so teachers feel pressured to try to “get through” all the material.
Even so, teachers have been pretty good at adapting to this format and have been very open to new ideas/techniques for teaching.
I think if you or your spouse have enough time to help your child with studying, it should be enough. Making sure your child gets enough sleep and time for leisure is far better for their health and ultimately their grades. This is the number 1 issue for students. The stress from constant studying, lack of sleep, and poor nutrition, and lack of social life/play time has really taken a toll on students mental health. Students are often falling asleep, losing focus, ECT…