In recent years the number of senior vocational high school students has declined dramatically. Even at the Yu Da High School of Commerce and Home Economics, the biggest in Taiwan with a onetime student population of over 10,000, enrollment has plummeted by half. (Jimmy Lin)

Early on when Taiwan adopted a planned economy, it laid

out plans at the same time for vocational senior high school education, and at one time as many as 70% of young people, on finishing their compulsory junior high school careers, eschewed the long road of completing senior high school and competing for a scarce place at university, and chose instead to study at a vocational senior high school. Although in recent years the number has gradually shrunk to about 50%, it is still on the high side when compared with the world average of less than 30%.

With a more advanced industrial sector, greater opportunities for higher education, and the need for a higher-quality workforce, there have been many calls for delaying the separation of students into senior high school and vocational senior high school streams. What should the vocational schools do? Should they retire after a job well done? This question has set the stage for public discussion.

Research by Assistant Professor Liu Chia-ju of National Kaohsiung Normal University's graduate institute of science education shows a close connection between Taiwan's technical and vocational education system and its economic development.

In the 1950s, in support of the government's policy to "nourish industry through agriculture, develop agriculture through industry," industrial and agricultural education were actively expanded to train the basic technical labor force needed for development. In the 1960s, when Taiwan's economy had changed course to emphasize exports, there was again a great increase in industrial/vocational classes. In the 1970s, as the center shifted to the chemicals industry, technical colleges in Taiwan flourished, and the ratio of student intake between senior high schools and vocational senior high schools was 3:7.

In the 1980s the electronics and information technology industries took center stage in Taiwan, and the technical and vocational educational system expanded into IT education. At the beginning of the 1990s, Taiwan underwent a complete economic restructuring and industry moved up another notch. Nowadays, the "knowledge economy" is vaunted above all else and biotechnology, nanotechnology, and advanced wafer technology rule the roost. In these high-tech workplaces most technical jobs are beyond the ability of current vocational senior high school graduates. So, what are the vocational schools, which used to train basic level technology workers, supposed to do now?