The School Education Special Savings Account Program - Your Compassion Creating a Brighter Future for Children -Ministry of Education Republic of China (Taiwan)

The School Education Special Savings Account Program - Your Compassion Creating a Brighter Future for Children

Date: 2009-02-23

The School Education Special Savings Account Program - Your Compassion Creating a Brighter Future for Children

To take better care of underprivileged students, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has launched the School Education Special Savings Account program. Under the program, schools may post the information of students requiring financial help on the web and open a special bank account for them. In addition, the MOE has set up a website - www.edusave.edu.tw - so that the public can obtain information on students in urgent need of financial assistance. On receipt of a donation, a school will post related information online and send the donator a receipt. Donators may learn the dates on which donations are received and other details through the website. Allocation of the funds is also made public on the website to enable transparency.

Since launching the website on January 1, 2008, the MOE has contributed a total of NT$200 million to participating schools with each school receiving between NT$20,000 and NT$60,000. In 2008, 2,115 primary and junior high schools and 179 national senior high and vocational schools participated in the program. The MOE is targeting the program towards public senior high and vocational school students, as well as public primary and junior high school students from low-income, medium-income and disaster-stricken households who are having difficulty continuing their education. Also targeted are students with special requirements from households of the above three types who are unable to continue their education.

As of December 31, 2008, as many as 1,191,213 persons had visited the website. According to statistics, information on 2,642 students needing help had been posted on the website by that time, with 1,963 persons having received assistance and their cases closed. A total of 3,453 donations ranging between NT$100,000 and NT$900,000 had been confirmed by schools to have been received, with a combined total of NT$28,712,991.

The program allows donations from caring people to quickly reach students that urgently need help. At the same time, the program provides timely assistance to students who live in remote areas or who come from socially- or economically-disadvantaged backgrounds.

The program is aimed at helping students from families stricken by disasters. It will not compete for government funds with similar programs designed to help the underprivileged students. The MOE hopes that the program will eventually become part of the educational system and that donations reach students needing help in a timely fashion. This way, they can receive an education without worrying about not having enough financial resources.