Since the DPP took office, the position of Minister of Education in the Republic of China has seemingly become a “hot potato” that no qualified person wants to touch, or a reward for those most willing to carry out political errands.
First, we saw the rapid rise and fall of Pan Wen-chung, followed by the controversial and short-lived tenure of Wu Maw-kuen. The primary task of these ministers seemed not to be improving the national education system or supporting higher education, but rather executing the political mission of “de-Kuan”—blocking Kuan Chung-min from becoming the president of National Taiwan University.
Education is supposed to be a field of “hundred-year plans,” requiring stability and professional vision. Instead, under the DPP, it has become a battlefield for ideological purity and political score-settling. When the criteria for becoming the head of education in a country shift from “academic standing and vision” to “who can best obstruct an academic rival,” the future of our students is being sacrificed.
Is the DPP truly unable to find talent? Or is it that true talent refuses to be used as a political tool? The constant turnover and the bizarre selection process reflect a party that values power above all else, including the intellectual future of the nation.
We don’t just need a “Minister of Education”; we need education to be freed from the hands of the DPP’s political machine.