Taipei City Government

During his report to city councilors on May 16, Mayor Ko Wen-je pointed out that the kindergarten tuition waiver will be further extended to cover three-year-olds. Starting September 2018, all three year olds who are domiciled in the city and enrolled in private kindergartens are eligible for the NT$13,660 subsidy per school semester. This extension will lead to a spending increase of NT$132 million.
 
Ko said the ideal ratio of public (public and non-profit) to private kindergartens is seven to three. However, with the number of non-profit kindergartens still falling short, the ratio is currently set at four to six. This forces many parents to send their children to private kindergartens, whose tuitions are far more expensive than public ones. The mayor admitted that it’s highly unlikely to achieve the ideal ratio of schools in the short term, adding that the tuition waiver may help take load off the parents.
 
Speaking of the promotion of publicized gardens, the mayor noted that the city aims to add 48 classes to non-profit kindergartens – thereby offering 1270 openings for sign-up and 34 class in public kindergartens for 510 two-year-olds exclusively. With the nation’s birthrate on the decline, elementary schools no longer need as much space and the unused space may be reallocated as nursery and kindergarten spaces. The ideal practice is that one spends his or her first twelve years enrolling at the nursery, kindergarten, and elementary school on the same campus, said the mayor.
 
While managing a class comprising of pupils spanning two to five-year-olds is challenging, the provision of two-year-old exclusive classes is also being planned. On the issue of whether two-year-olds should be included in the waiver program, Ko commented that society and professional communities have yet to agree on the need of having two-year-olds go to kindergartens. It is premature to address this issue.