2015-04-02
|
Presiding over a seminar for the early childhood education sector on April 2, Mayor Lin had a good chance to discuss his new daycare policy with the traders and get their feedback. He also hoped the traders can quickly spread the messages that they have learnt in the face-to-face interaction to the parents in need of their services.
Mayor Lin said, “Taiwan is facing declining birthrate and population aging at the same time. As a result, young parents are carrying a very heavy burden. To lessen their burden, I have expanded the original daycare subsidy program taking care of only kids aged 0 to 2 years old to kids aged 0 to 6 years old. This ‘end-to-end’ program will cover nursery schools, daycare centers, home daycare service providers (nannies) and childcare allowances to disadvantaged families. It is a kind of comprehensive subsidy program and we have already proposed a supplementary budget to the City Council for review and approval. I am confident this policy shall be adopted soon.”
“As we all know, young parents need to raise not only their children but also their parents.” Mayor Lin continued, “Therefore, we at the city government also try very hard to push out supporting measures. For example, we have recently persuaded the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation to set up its 10-nano meter investment project in Central Taiwan Science Park, in a hope to promote industrial investment and improve employment opportunities for our citizens. Meanwhile, we have been planning affordable social housing units, we have added NT$5 for school lunch subsidy, and we have added more food bank alliance shops. We will also push out other welfare measures to take care of the low-income families.”
Director-general of Education Bureau Yan Qing-xiang (顏慶祥) said, “In line with the ‘end-to-end daycare subsidy program for 0-6 year-old kids’, our Education Bureau will expand the free pre-schooling program to cover kids aged 2 to 4 years old in this year and onwards. In other words, a 2-year-old kid can enroll free of charge in a public nursery school or will be subsidized of NT$ 15,000 per semester for attending a private nursery school, if the kid and one of his/her parents register their household in Taichung City. You know the free pre-schooling benefit is offered to kids aged 5 and above in the previous policy. It is estimated that about 34,000 children will be benefited by this expansion of scope. In addition, we at the Education Bureau are considering to increase other school-expense subsidy for the disadvantaged families in accordance with their annual family incomes.”
Director-general of Social Affairs Bureau Lue Jen-der (呂建德) also said, “We at the Social Affairs Bureau are responsible for allocating monthly grants ranging from NT$ 2000 to NT$ 3,000 to the daycare centers, home daycare service providers (nannies) and disadvantaged families. This subsidy program is expected to roll out in July this year after the supplementary budget is approved by the City Council.”
Representatives from the early childhood education sector spoke highly of Mayor Lin's "end-to-end daycare subsidy program" policy, the seminar, and the chance to discuss and give feedback face to face. They hoped to have such seminars held more frequently in the future and also asked the city government to help recruit teachers for private nursery schools.
Some representatives expressed hopes that the Education Bureau can distribute the grants before October 15. Director-general Yan responded, “I am confident that the policy to subsidize NT$ 15,000 per semester for a kid attending a private nursery school shall be adopted this year. However, NT$ 15,000 is the cap. For those who pay a tuition less than NT$ 15,000, they should be subsidized in accordance with the actual amount. Yes, we are pondering viable options to subsidize the payment to teachers and other administrative costs for private nursery schools.”
Mayor Lin stressed, “The end-to-end daycare subsidy program is the first of its kind in the country. There is no example for us to follow. So, we are trying to carry on the policy on a rolling basis. I only hope to make the pie bigger and bigger. We intend to set up more public daycare centers in the remote areas. As our population continues to grow and its average age is getting lower and lower, I hope more and more young people will select to settle down in Taichung. To make Taichung more attractive to them, we will promote more cooperation programs between industry and academia. We will integrate our population policy, education policy and social policy to solve demand-side problems from the perspectives of supply side.”
unit:綜合企劃科
