Education is more than books and scores

However, the atmosphere of the anniversary ceremony on Nov. 15 was not altogether celebratory. While NTU President Li Si-chen proudly reminded his guests that the school has finally grabbed its holy grail of joining the top-100 club, the media put their focus on something else — the students attending the morning ceremony who were dozing off, while others had headphones plugged in their ears, and some were even holding their cell phones up to their faces.

The disinterested souls attracted the press's interest after the recent public slash by Hung Lan, neurological scientist and wife of former education minister Ovid Tzeng, on the sluggishness of NTU medical school students.

In her Chinese article entitled “If you don't want to study, give your opportunities to others” in CommonWealth magazine, Hung criticized students from NTU's medical school, long regarded as the most coveted place for Taiwan's brightest, for their lack of professionalism.

Hung made such a conclusion after she paid a visit to the medical school where she found students playing with cell phones, texting, eating or watching TV programs on their laptops — and that was among those who were still awake.

Lee accepted Hung's opinion as an appropriate description, not only of medical school students, but also of all NTU students. He encouraged all students to be more open-minded and tolerant toward criticism.

While it is wise to be humble to other strong opinions, accepting criticism is only the beginning for Taida to bring professionalism back to their students. On the other hand, while Hung was right to point out the spiritual or morale deficit of college students, her equating of students' class attitude to their unwillingness to excel actually illustrates part of the problem of Taiwan education.

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