Diplomaism or Need for Educational Opportunity ? ––– The Social Meaning of Competition for School Admission Author:張郁雯 Chang Yu-wen, 林文瑛 WEN-YING LIN
Research Article
The study investigated the perceived as well as desirable educational opportunity in Taiwan. Compared to actual enrollment rate, researchers were able to infer the educational demand and the attributed causes for competition for school admission. There were 2052 participants and 808 of them having at least one child in school. It was a stratified random sample from Taiwan population. The results demonstrated that desirable educational opportunity and perceived educational opportunity were higher than actual enrollment rate. Also, desirable educational opportunity was higher than perceived opportunity. Based on parents desirable educational attainment for their children, the actual educational opportunity can only satisfy half the parents. Perceived educational opportunity, educational demand, and attribution for educational competition differed significantly by educational level. People with higher educational attainment were more likely to attribute competition for school admission to diplomaism rather than need for educational opportunity. The implications were discussed.