Urban Anomie @ Taipei (台北健頭)

記得幾個月前，中央和台北巿政府為了可不可以公布學測組距(台北巿的詳細組距資料）而意見分歧。我的意見是，不要公布台北巿詳細學測組距。

Why?

Ideally, we would like to encourage pupils to study locally. So they won't suffer the long commuting or be forced to move out of their hometowns. Of course, the goals are to establish reputed high schools around the island (now, obviously, all concentrated in Taipei.)

If the detail ranking of each junior-high students in Taipei is to be disclosed (they did, Taipei government finally defied the plea from the Ministry of Education) -- but the ranking of the whole nation was made to be accessed by anyone, anyway -- it will inadverdently rank the junior-high school, thus makes things worse. More presitigious schools attract more prospect students. This is downward spiral.

If the Taipei ranking was kept in the dark, it will encourage students to apply for specific-interest schools (such as art, music...) and promote community high school.

The reason why most of the parents and teachers in Taipei are for disclosing the (specific Taipei) ranking is to take advantage of that information and pinpoint the exact (possible, of course) school for enrollment. In that case, short term interest is served. But in the long run, no one is the winner.

So, it's kind of philosophical.

如果要長期的教育正常化，我們要作一些短期內可能不是每一個人都同意的改革。但是，這一些改革並不一定是對的，甚至它的有效性都可以辯論。

但我們看到的是，議題模糊化，報紙媒體只重視中央地方對抗的焦點，沒有好好解釋這些值得社會注意討論的issue。