Press Releases

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National Project of Hope: Investing in Future Generations from Ages 0 to 22

Source (Chinese): https://taiwan2024.tw/policies/2

• Investing in Future Generations, Investing in the Future of the Nation
• Comprehensive social support system plans
  • Ages 0-6
    • Five Strategies: “Raising Together 2.0”, Creating a Friendly Growth Environment, Assisting Parents Raising their Families
  • Ages 6-18
    • Five Plans: Diverse and Excellent Educational Environment for Every Child and Youth
  • Ages 18-22
    • Five Initiatives: Investing in Higher and Vocational Education 3+1, Diverse Support for Youth Development
• Ages 0-6: “Raising Together 2.0”, Creating a Friendly Growth Environment, Assisting Parents Raising their Families
• Affordable, High-Quality, and Widespread Childcare Service System
  • Strategy 1: Expand public and quasi-public childcare capacity, raise the rate of external childcare for ages 0-3 to OECD standards
  • Strategy 2: Further reduce childcare costs for parents of 0-2-year-olds, aiming for average monthly expenses similar to those for 2-6-year-olds
    • For firstborns, for example:
      • Subsidies for public childcare increased to 7,000 NTD (reducing the burden by 1,500 NTD)
      • Subsidies for quasi-public infant care and nanny services increased to 13,000 NTD (reducing the burden by 4,500 NTD)
  • Strategy 3: Complete childcare timing: Government-subsidized support for personnel, promoting public kindergartens to provide services during winter and summer vacations, extending weekday childcare hours, and adding designated temporary childcare locations
  • Strategy 4: Enhance childcare quality, ensure staff salaries and rights: Implement lower teacher-student ratios across all age groups, starting with public kindergartens, and increase salaries based on seniority
  • Strategy 5: Improve parenting support measures: Implement flexible parental leave; provide friendly visits by parenting guides for new parents; encourage businesses to combine quasi-public policies to increase attached facilities; establish sports and recreational spaces suitable for children and adolescents
• Ages 6-18: Diverse and Excellent Educational Environment for Every Child and Youth
  • Plan 1: Fully implement free tuition for high schools and vocational schools, continue promoting equality and community integration
    • Continue a full tuition-free policy for high schools and vocational schools, reducing the burdens on students and parents
    • Continue promoting equality and community integration in high schools and vocational schools, deepen resource sharing within regions, vertically connect junior high to university cooperation, guide appropriate development and local schooling
  • Plan 2: Friendly learning campus environment
    • Actively prevent campus bullying and anti-drug initiatives
    • Actively promote campus gender equality education
    • Comprehensively inspect and improve campus and surrounding security, improve nearby traffic
    • Provide diverse support and care for socioeconomically disadvantaged students
    • Provide a more friendly learning environment for students from immigrant families
  • Plan 3: Actively nurture global citizens
    • Actively cultivate students' digital citizenship, preparing the next generation for digital technology and artificial intelligence environments
    • Establish a student digital learning support system, develop autonomous learning courses and materials
    • Promote bilingual education, respecting students' right to education and teachers' professional teaching, and based on feedback from the teaching field, steadily implement an English-friendly learning environment
    • Provide students with an international learning environment, enhancing international communication and mobility
  • Plan 4: Optimize care for the physical and mental health of children and adolescents
    • Actively implement the “Young Group Mental Health Support Program,” supporting young people with mental health counseling needs, providing counseling services, and enhancing assistance with medical referrals for high-risk cases
    • Strengthen emotional education and counseling mechanisms in schools at all levels, providing multiple assistance channels for young people to relieve emotional distress
    • Develop “Mental and Physical Adjustment Leave” as a leave category, allowing young people to become properly self-aware and autonomously adjust their mental and physical stress
  • Plan 5: Invest resources to enhance special education quality
    • Expand investment in special education funding
    • Review work items, annually increase special education teacher staffing
    • Properly identify, curriculum teaching, and educational counseling, strengthen support network construction
    • Complete the transition system and provide career transition services
• Ages 18-22: Investing in youth careers, supporting diverse development
  • Plan 1: Formulate the “Youth Policy White Paper”
    • Integrate cross-ministry tasks including education, employment, entrepreneurship, housing, and public participation, invite youth participation, outline comprehensive blueprints and execution plans for youth development
    • Systematically research and study youth issues, construct youth policy indicators
  • Plan 2: Invest in higher and vocational education 3+1
    • Expand three major investments in higher education
      • Reduce the burden of higher education tuition fees, promote educational equity
        • Annually subsidize private college and university students with 35,000 NTD in tuition fees, narrowing the gap between public and private tuition fees
        • Expand economic assistance for students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds in public and private colleges and universities, with exemptions of up to 20,000 NTD
        • Raise the income threshold for deferring student loan principal and interest payments from 40,000 NTD to 50,000 NTD per month, extend the deferral period from 8 to 12 years
        • Encourage public universities to increase priority admission quotas for disadvantaged students
      • Invest in educational research talents, pursue excellence in higher education
        • Expand higher education deep cultivation plans, connect locally, align internationally, and embrace the future
        • Enhance the treatment of teaching and research talents, strengthen talent retention and attraction in higher education
        • Assist private colleges and universities in strengthening public governance, enhancing teaching quality, and protecting teacher rights
      • Invest in international exchange and cooperation, enhancing the international competitiveness of higher education
        • Expand international student enrollment and academic exchange cooperation, attract top international scholars to Taiwan for short-term lectures or teaching
        • Encourage domestic universities to cooperate with high-quality foreign universities, promote dual degree programs, and establish overseas campuses in Taiwan
        • Establish a 10-billion NTD student overseas dream fund, encouraging youth to broaden their international horizons
    • Expand investment in vocational education (including colleges, universities, and technical high schools)
      • Invest in vocational education, nurturing diverse industry talents
        • Expand investment in industry teachers, teaching equipment, and industry-like production lines
        • Plan courses according to industry talent needs, enhance students' understanding, experience, and practice of careers
        • Offer post-bachelor industry technology professional training classes, providing diverse advanced study opportunities for those wishing to change careers or develop other specialties
  • Plan 3: Strengthen the rights protection of young workers
    • Complete minimum wage legislation, continue raising the basic wage, and improve the starting salary for young employees
    • Subsidize working youth to participate in job training, assist youth capability development
    • Strengthen basic labor rights in salary, working hours, leave, and insurance for non-typical workers
    • Support youth innovation and entrepreneurship, encourage youth participation in local revitalization and local entrepreneurship
  • Plan 4: Fully promote the “Three Strategies for Housing,” actively respond to the housing needs of the youth generation
    • Promote “Multi-House Tax 2.0,” national implementation, encourage releasing vacant properties
    • Promote “Assist a Million Renting Households” plan
      • 2016 to 2032 total goal: 250,000 social housing units (120,000 + 130,000), 250,000 rental management units (80,000 + 170,000), 500,000 rent subsidies (250,000 + 250,000). This includes a certain proportion of youth social housing and through urban planning and incentivizing diverse sources of social housing land and units, such as retiring private school lands, providing diversified housing types
    • Refine “Youth Housing Preferential Loans,” reduce interest rates by at least one percentage point, increase the maximum loan amount from 8 million to 10 million NTD, extend the loan term from 30 to 40 years, extend the grace period from 3 to 5 years
  • Plan 5: Encourage youth participation in public affairs and expand local youth support systems
    • Continue promoting 18-year-old voting rights
    • Establish youth activity centers or clubs through public-private partnership models, promote youth exchange, support youth career development, and public participation
    • Expand subsidies for student clubs and youth organizations, formulate reward, subsidy, and empowerment plans, and share community space resources
    • Increase local revitalization workstations, integrate cross-ministry resources, support young people's participation in community building, local revitalization, and entrepreneurship
    • Establish a national organizational structure and governance platform for youth participation in local public affairs through regulatory gaming models, promote participatory budgeting
• I support you, be yourself; Taiwan will be better!
  • Investing in the future of young people is investing in the future of Taiwan