The Legislative Yuan will negotiate on the special law for lunch. The religious group made three demands: The lunch secretaries should be professionalized.
The Legislative Yuan will hold negotiations on the school lunch regulations, and the teachers union approved the Ministry of Education's version of the regulations, which "has units but no dedicated personnel", putting an administrative mess on grassroots teachers.
Quick Look
Nine major teachers' unions, including the Taiwan Education Industry Union, criticized the Ministry of Education's version of the draft "School Lunch and Food Education Regulations" for lacking support for full-time teachers, demanding that teachers be banned from holding concurrent positions, the central government set standards for full-time posts, and a list of local governments that oppose professionalization be announced.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The Legislative Yuan is about to conduct negotiations on the "School Lunch and Food Education Ordinance (Draft)", which has triggered controversy among teachers' groups over administrative manpower establishment.
The Legislative Yuan will hold consultations on the "School Lunch and Food Education Regulations (Draft)" in the near future. Nine major teachers' unions including the Taiwan Education Industry Union (Taiwan Education Industry) believe that the Ministry of Education's version completely lacks the key supporting facilities for "full-time lunch secretaries". Therefore, they propose that lunch secretaries should be made full-time and teachers should not be allowed to hold concurrent posts. The central government should clearly formulate the full-time post standard for lunch executive secretaries in the school lunch law and provide local education bureaus with sufficient legal sources and resources. They should also make public a list of local governments that oppose the full-time lunch secretaries.
At present, 22 counties and cities in Taiwan have promoted free school lunches, with an estimated government funding injection of nearly 28.5 billion yuan each year. Taiwan Education Industry believes that school lunches have long gone beyond simple student welfare and evolved into a highly complex national-level public feeding system, spanning China and the United States. Central and local governments, governments and manufacturers involve key aspects such as professional manpower establishment, food procurement from origin to table, and hygiene control. Without a central-level school lunch law as a higher-level legal norm, it may lead to the chaos of educational inequality in "one country, multiple systems."
Regarding the Ministry of Education version of the bill, "Schools should designate a dedicated unit and designate one person to serve as the executive secretary of school lunch, responsible for planning, designing and promoting school lunch work; if the teacher holds the concurrent position, the reduction of the number of teaching periods, rewards and other related matters shall be decided by the central competent authority in consultation with local authorities. Guo Yancheng, chairman of Taiwan Education Industry, criticized that the first half of the article stated that "the school should designate a dedicated unit", but the second half said "designate one person to also serve as the lunch secretary." "There is a unit but no dedicated person" and runs counter to the original intention of the legislation to "establish dedicated manpower and strengthen the professionalism of lunch." Moreover, the end of the article reveals that the Ministry of Education has no intention of setting up full-time manpower, but instead imposes a huge administrative mess on grassroots teachers.
Taiwan's education industry demands that the special law should clearly define the lunch executive secretary as "full-time personnel with relevant majors"; for small and medium-sized schools, the competent authorities should coordinate cross-school allocation and dedicated support; the central government should clearly formulate the standard for full-time lunch executive secretaries in the school lunch law and give it to local education bureaus Sufficient legal sources and resources; also ask the Ministry of Education to announce to the public which local governments are opposed to the professionalization of lunch secretaries, "while writing checks and shouting about free lunches, they are engaging in match-fixing and opposing full-time lunch secretaries"; or is it just that the Ministry of Education itself is using local governments as a shield to evade the legal responsibilities of the central authorities.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The Legislative Yuan will hold consultations on the school lunch and food education bill
Very likely · Within days
Open Questions
- Will the Ministry of Education revise the draft?
- Which local governments oppose the professionalization of lunch secretaries?





