Awards Ceremony for 2007 School Principals' Outstanding Leadership Awards and Awards of Teaching Excellence

To commend the contributions award winners made to education, Minister Tu Cheng-sheng extended his best wishes to all the winning teachers and school principals and gave his highest respects to the participants for promoting educational ideals at the grassroots level.

In addition to receiving a specially-made trophy and certificate, each winning principal was entitled to a cash award of NT$200,000, while each group winning a gold medal for teaching excellence is entitled to a cash award of NT$600,000 and each group winning a silver medal NT$300,000. All semifinalists failing to win a title were awarded NT$30,000.

Minister Tu noted that MOE in 2003 introduced the Awards of Teaching Excellence and in 2004 the Principals' Outstanding Leadership Awards. The intent was to encourage schoolteachers to be devoted to teaching and develop new techniques in an effort to achieve educational reform goals which are focused on schools, teachers and students. According to the students' individual conditions, the best education is offered to realize children's potential and for them to make contributions to themselves, their families, society and mankind.

Minister Tu was in the opinion that the chief objective of education is to infuse the basic qualities of modern citizens into children. Secondly, the purpose of education is to train students to become citizens that love their native soil and country. Thirdly, efforts should be made starting from the primary school stage to train children to have a broad world and international view. Moreover, we need to nurture children's concept and behavior to care about others, particularly those who are less fortunate than the children themselves.

To add a fun element to the ceremony, arrangements were made for certain groups to give performances. They included the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, with a chorus singing performance by Taipei Municipal Nanhu High School, and the 3+1 Reversing the Course of Events, Taiwanese opera's poem chanting and English song singing performances by Taipei County Xiulang Primary School. At the dinner after the ceremony, Xiulang Primary School performed chorus singing and Taiwanese opera's New Black Girl.

In order to make known the winners' rich development process and innovative teaching content so that more originality and passion could be encouraged, MOE was to hold symposiums in northern, central and southern Taiwan in an effort to allow experience sharing and facilitate lifting of the quality of school running and teaching, in a bid to gradually reform education.