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In May 2008, Tsung-Yeh Elementary School, located in Madou, Tainan, was informed to be cut down and merged into other schools in the coming semester, leaving 170 students and faculty forced to work and go to other schools. Unable to effectively communicate and negotiate with the county government, parents, students and teachers formed an anti-merging union to protect their school. Two main controversial points were brought up by anti-mergers. First, the decision of cutting down and merging school was made in a rush. Second, the government cut down the school for the purpose of the development of the local art. Therefore, the process of cutting down and merging the school was under huge doubt and debate. I participated in many anti-merging movements and shot a record, hoping to dig out different facets and possibilities through this seemingly ordinary case. The purpose of this research is to: 1. Discuss the essential meaning of education, including the right to education, the learning subjectivity, the commercialization of education and related educational issues. 2. Discuss the policy of cutting down Tsung-Yeh Elementary School for the sake of the development of art, comparing the importance and value of art development and education. 3. Examine the appropriateness of the government’s policy-making, discussing its rationality and legitimacy. The method of this research is divided into two parts. First, the documentary form was chosen to record the process by Participant observation and Depth interviews. The second part attempts to discuss this school-merging case in a more comprehensive way through Collecting and analyzing literature. Through these two parts of research, this case would be more completely and systematically discussed. After participating in the event and shooting the documentary film, this study concludes that: 1. Education is a multi-faced issue. Thus, it is hard to come to a simple conclusion, but the basic concern for students’ right to education is a rudimentary need. With the progress of insights on education, the awareness of learning subjectivity and students’ rights should be gradually improved as well. 2. Due to the publicness of the government’s policy-making, the motivation and vision purpose should be under the supervision and evaluation of its people. Therefore, the public hearing before announcing and implementing any policy is crucial and indispensible. Also, the government should fully communicate and discuss with the public during the process, and the policy should not be enforced in a hurry so that people affected have sufficient time to react and adjust themselves to it. 3. The comparison of the importance of education and art development is under debate since they originate from different perspectives, and it is thus difficult to reach an agreement. Finding a way for education and art development to co-exist and prosper is the best way to protect the rights of most people, lower the resistance as well as obtain more support.
Regarding the limits of this research, the vision in this documentary might be influenced by my own viewpoint, which is against the act of cutting down and merging the school. Therefore, the way of shooting the documentary, the process of the image production, and the discussion and thinking on the issue might all be limited to my own vision. However, this study can still serve as a historic mirror, drawing people’s attention to the educational problems and soliciting more public opinions. By doing so, the government will be under the supervision of the public, balancing the opinions from more people while making decisions in vision planning and educational policies, so as to avoid such non-transparent school-merging case in the future.
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