Four Kaohsiung parent groups call for three education reforms, Lai Jui-lung pledges policy review

Four major parent and education groups in Kaohsiung have put forward three demands focused on the problems families say schools face most urgently: student mental health, classroom management and shortages of frontline teachers.

The groups raised their proposals at an education forum with Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Lai Jui-lung on the first day of the new school term. The meeting brought together representatives from the Kaohsiung Parents Association, the Parents Education Reform Association, the Association of Parent Council Presidents of Schools at All Levels, and the Kaohsiung Parents Association for Underprivileged Education.

The Kaohsiung Parents Association proposed embedding character education and social-emotional learning in core courses. It said the approach should build psychological resilience from an early age and help prevent bullying and emotional crises.

Its second demand was to reduce class sizes in primary and junior high schools to 25 students through a phased plan. The group said smaller classes would improve individualized guidance and ease teachers’ classroom-management burden. Its third proposal called for easing restrictions on retired teachers returning to work through a matching platform, particularly to fill gaps in special education, science and engineering, and rural substitute teaching.

Lai expressed strong support for the proposals and said he would take them to his team to examine how they could be implemented. He said the demands directly addressed problems faced by educators and had a legal basis for policy action.