The school affairs meeting triggered controversy over excessive lawsuits and large-scale small cases on campus. The Ministry of Education announced a further reform version this afternoon (7th), revising the methods for teacher dismissal and performance assessment. Compared with the reform in January this year that focused on "how to divert the report after reporting," this time the line of defense has been pushed forward. If the teacher's behavior is obviously not punishable by law or meets the school's reasonable discipline regulations, the school should directly close the case without even holding a meeting to decide whether to accept the case; for general assessment cases, it is clearly changed to "internal investigation as a principle and external recruitment as an exception."
The Ministry of Education revised Articles 8 and 9-2 of the Measures for Dismissal of Teachers and Article 6-1 of the Measures for Teacher Performance Assessment, focusing on simplifying case handling procedures and safeguarding teachers’ rights to reasonable discipline, and taking into account students’ rights to education and the teacher education profession.
The first change is to allow reasonable discipline cases to be concluded earlier. The new regulations clearly stipulate that after the school receives a report, if the teacher's behavior clearly falls within the circumstances stipulated in Article 4 of the Dismissal Measures, no punishment will be imposed, including legal behavior, legitimate business behavior, necessary disciplinary behavior to maintain teaching order and the normal conduct of educational activities, or in compliance with the law. It is a legal act to comply with the tutoring or student discipline methods formulated by each school in accordance with the Teachers Law. The school should directly close the case and notify the whistleblower with a written explanation of the reasons within 20 days. There is no need to convene a meeting as stipulated in Article 9 to decide whether to accept the case, nor to enter into follow-up investigation. Schools can instead use methods such as teacher-student communication and administrative interviews to resolve conflicts.
However, if the whistleblower is dissatisfied with the closure of the case by the school, he can still make a complaint to the competent authority within 30 days from the day after receiving the notice, and the competent authority will review and decide. If the competent authority directly receives the report and finds that the teacher's behavior is obviously not punishable as stipulated in Article 4 of the Dismissal Measures, it should also notify the reporter to close the case and no longer transfer it to the school for processing.
The second change is to limit external investigations. General performance assessment cases were originally stipulated to be investigated by on-campus personnel, and off-campus personnel could be dispatched “when necessary.” The new system clarifies the exception conditions. Only when it is difficult for on-campus personnel to investigate due to staffing, schools in remote areas, or other special circumstances, can off-campus personnel be dispatched.
The Ministry of Education has also proposed four supporting measures, including developing 16 implementation guidelines for general teacher discipline measures; announcing the key points of legal consultation subsidy work for teachers in mid-October; publishing guidelines on the prevention of illegal infringements in the workplace at the end of October; and strengthening parental discipline responsibilities. If parents do not cooperate with student counseling, social affairs notifications can be made when necessary.
In January this year, the Ministry of Education amended the law to delete anonymous reports, establish a preliminary screening and diversion of cases, and increase the number of assistants. After the implementation of the new system, the proportion of cases accepted and sent to the school council meeting dropped from 82% to 22%. The relevant measures were returned by the Legislative Yuan in July, requiring re-examination and correction before being submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review. In September, the Ministry of Education invited all walks of life to discuss and propose this amendment.
