My wife and I are both foreign passport holders who have work visas and ARCs. Our son is 5 and needs to go to elementary school this year. He has been going to a local kindergarten and we had assumed that he could go to the school across the street from the school, which is in our district, like all the other kids.
However, when my wife went in last week to inquire what was required for registration, she was told by the principle’s office that at least one parent needed to be a Taiwanese citizen for kids to go to school because of “paperwork” that needed to be submitted. This sort of surprised us though, offhand, neither of us know of another situation exactly like ours.
Are private or international schools really the only option for children of foreign citizens residing in Taiwan?
That’s a load of crap! The principal has the final say on school admissions. My friends were in the sane boat as you and the principal even overlooked the fact that they had no household registration, something that is usually a MUST have for public schools. It sounds like the principal in question doesn’t actually know what to do or couldn’t be bothered, either way call the dept of education or just go back and tell him you were told it’s possible.
If the principle has final say and he says it is not possible, we are planning to check other schools. Ironically, this school seems to overlook the fact that a good number of kids who go there do not live anywhere in the district as nearby buxibans openly promote that if you attend their after-school programs, they can register a parent as living “upstairs” to allow a local address.
If you really want him in that school, do all the paperwork chasing up yourself and then present it to the principal politely - like it took you a long time to do this, so you’re not surprised that he didn’t have the time to find it all. He’s more likely to let you in if you do all the legwork @.@;
Otherwise, find a better school… If all the local parents are shoving to get their kids into that one, he might just have a year’s worth of homework every day from it.
I am divorced and my Taiwan ex has no custody of our son, she doesn’t even live in Taiwan anymore, so she had nothing to do with the school enrolment process, though my boy is a Taiwan citizen. His babysitter helped me enrol him.
I had to get his name taken off his Taiwan grandparent’s household registration or he would have been told to attend the school near their place in Taipei City, I live in HsinChuang. But I changed it in his last year of Kindy and got his name put on his babysitter’s household registration so when it was school enrolment time, the school automatically sent out a letter telling the enrolment process and dates. From what I remember there wasn’t much involved at all. I had a friend come down to the school with me, but basically we went to a few different classrooms, got his name checked off from a few lists, bought his school uniforms and were given a free metal lunchbox, water bottle and carrybag.
I know that’s not answering your questions, just thought I would share.
My son is still on his paternal family’s household registration. We are now living in a different city, and he is attending the public school where I teach. There was NO problem with anything at all. The principal agreed that he could study here, and that’s all there was to it.
BTW, I’m American, my son is both American and Taiwanese, I have full custody, and we have nothing at all to do with any of his Taiwanese family.
Same as you, though I am Australian and my boy is both Australian and Taiwanese, I also have full custody and we have nothing at all to do with any of his Taiwanese family.
So, your case shows there shouldn’t be any problems enrolling a kid into school, just need to explain your situation to the right people. After all, school is compulsory over here, isn’t it???
I took my son’s name off the ex-in-laws household registration after the divorce and custody case was settled in my favour, just didn’t want them trying to make any claims about anything in court if his name was on their household registration. I removed myself, too. But for his school enrolment, I never spoke to the principal of the school, or anyone else for that matter and as I said before,I received notification in the mail from the school in the area for the babysitter’s household registration with details on when and how to enrol. Don’t really know how they knew about us, I just assumed it was done through the Household Registry office and they knew which school your child should attend based on our address. But from your example Housecat, if your circumstances are different, you can go in and speak with the schools about your requirements.
Heres an idea. Bring a mando speaking person with you. But go to the local police precinct which often has a (dont know how to say this in english and cant type the chinese) Chuee Kong Shwoh. Which is where they do the household registration. And tell them you want to enroll your child in school because its the law that children need to be educated and ask for their help in placing the child. I feel sure they can help you. They can place your child in a school without the principals yes or no I feel sure.
We have many American friends who have sent their children to local elementary schools in their neighborhoods. Our neighbors send their daughter to the school across the street from our building. They are both Americans, with an American child, and it’s not an issue. If you are here on ARCs, your child can surely go to school here. You may need to bring a local person with you to the school to help explain and sort things out and figure out what paperwork you need to present. Does your employer have someone (a secretary or administrative person) who can help you with this?
Yes thanks touduke , he is a genius! See if i went to a Taiwanese grade school i woulda been able to write chinese instead of just speaking it. And unlike a lot of people who put in the time to do that, i simply didnt bother with it, too hard.
Can you type it? Lots of ABCs can read/type but not write.
Something everybody’s missed mentioning to the OP is that there is the possibility that the principal’s not just lazy but a little bit racist, and his school might not be the best environment for their child.
Hi question for TaipeiSean or anyone else who might know about household registration & local schools:
How do I go about putting my son’s name on somebody else’s household registration like you did w’ your son on the babysitter’s household?
My situation is that my friends (dual American-Taiwanese passport holders) have just moved to Taiwan and registered their kids at the local school. We’re hoping my son (American passport) can stay with them and go to school there. They recently took my son to the school and he was accepted for registration along with their kids. The school told my friends that my son just needed to have household registration papers. I’m going to Taiwan to meet them in a few weeks. Can I put my son’s name on my friends’ household registration? How do I do this? We’re American passport holders, and right now our visas are still multiple entry tourist visas… I’m trying to find a way to let my son stay for school in Taiwan until next year when I will move to Taiwan and find a job so we can stay there w’ resident visas (hopefully).
helenk88 please let me know when you find out more. We want to get our daughter into a local school too. But all of us are non-Taiwanese and on multi-entry visitor’s visas, so no ARCs yet. It seems like you might have found some sort of work-around. Please keep us updated.
I initiated this thread but never followed up on it which is not a polite thing to do.
First of all, I appreciate everybody’s responses and advice.
Secondly, the situation has been resolved but, although there are rules about such matter, everybody seems to interpret them differently which should be no surprise.
Essentially, we were told that foreign kids could not enroll because foreigners did not have household registries and they would have no numbers to fill in the appropriate blanks. Somebody gave us advice to return and talk to somebody else who simply asked “does he speak Chinese” and, when we assured her that he did, things got easy. It was explained that they don’t usually like to have foreign kids because they do not have any systems to deal with non-native speakers but, if the kids are fine speaking, it actually is easier for foreigners as we don’t need to have…wait for it…household registries, which mean that we can enroll kids in any school we want regardless of which district we live in. This was confirmed by two other schools.
Guys, any updates on this matter? Got a couple of friends who want to enroll their kids in simple kindergarten here. I always thought local schools were quite welcoming and I am puzzled that on SEARCHing here, it seems it is not that so.
As I wrote elsewhere:
I don’t think it’s easy to get kids in a public kindergarten because there is a specific registration time in May, and that time has passed. I could be wrong, though. It’s possible the schools could make an exception. As for 1st grade and above, I think you can just go talk to the school and see what they can do. In fact, that would probably be the best bet for kindergarten as well.
Also, Petrichor (sp?) has written extensively on this topic on Forumosa, so you may want to read her posts or contact her.
