Regulations Governing Multiple Senior Secondary School Admission Channels
Announced Date：2019-02-20
These Regulations have been formulated in accordance with the provisions of Article 40 of the Senior High School Education Act (hereunder referred to as “the Act”).
Article 2
These Regulations apply to students who enrolled in and after the 2014 school year.
Article 3
The terms used in these Regulations are defined below:
1. Multiple admission channels: refers to students who graduated from junior high school or have had an equivalent junior high school level education (hereinafter referred to as “junior high school students”) being admitted to attend a senior secondary school (hereinafter abbreviated to “school”) through one of the following methods:
(1) Open admission (also referred to as “open admission”): refers to students being admitted to a school directly from junior high school, or after selecting a school in their school district based on their individual aptitude, interests, and aspirations, without having to pass an entrance examination.
(2) Selective admission: Being admitted to a school that selects which students it will enroll based on their technical, artistic, or academic ability. Schools allocate places after assessing applicants’ technical and artistic skills, or holding subject exams to assess their academic skills.
2. School district: refers to an area defined by a special municipality, or city (county) level competent authority, solely or in conjunction with at least one other such competent authority, using its own special municipality, or city (county) administrative jurisdiction area, or its own in combination with the administrative jurisdiction area of at least one other special municipality or city (county), as its boundary. If the central competent authority has approved a defined school district, the junior high school students there may choose to attend any senior high school in that district by open admission. The entire country is the catchment area for any senior high school in that school district that has been given approval to conduct a selective admission, and junior high school students anywhere in the country may choose to apply to take part.
Article 4
The following factors shall be considered when defining a school district:
The source of new students enrolling: The number of junior high school graduates who enrolled in each school in the past three years.
- The shared social circles within the district: The scope of the shared social circle networks formed as a result of historical developments, the geographical location, and social culture.
- Transportation convenience: the availability, connectedness, and convenience of the public transportation network in a district.
- The categories of schools and their distribution: The fullness of the distribution of the different categories of senior secondary schools defined in Article 5 of the Act, or the adequacy of adaptive options for students.
- Other factors determined by the special municipality level or city (county) level competent authority.
Article 5
The procedure for defining school districts is set out below:
1. By June 10 each year, before student admissions for the following year are being organized, each special municipality or city (county) level competent authority shall, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 1 of the preceding article, define its school districts, independently or jointly with one or more other special municipality or city (county) level competent authorities, then report the proposed district divisions to the central competent authority for approval. At the stage when the districts are still being defined, a special municipality or city (county) level competent authority may request assistance or mediation from the central competent authority.
2. Before the central competent authority finalizes the approval of the school districts referred to in the previous subparagraph, it may invite representatives of the special municipality or city (county) level competent authorities involved, representatives of junior high schools and senior secondary schools, and experts and scholars to engage in joint discussions.
3. Each special municipality or city (county) level competent authority shall make the school districts that have been approved by the central competent authority public by July 20 of the year before admissions for schools in those districts are conducted.
Article 6
Open admission is conducted as stipulated below:
- The special municipality or city (county) level competent authority of each school district shall consult with the competent authority or authorities of the schools in that district and formulate operation directions governing open admissions for that school district that are in accordance with the associated compliance requirements set by the central competent authority, and submit them to the special municipality or city (county) level Education Review Committee. The operation directions shall be made public and implemented, after the special municipality or city (county) level Education Review Committee has approved them and sent a copy to the central competent authority to file for reference. If a school district is partially located in each of two or more special municipalities or cities (counties), the respective competent authorities shall work together and decide on which one of them will take on the responsibility of acting as the competent authority in charge of that school district and they shall consult with each other to formulate the operation directions governing open admissions for that school district.
3. The candidate comparison procedure referred to in the preceding subparagraph shall satisfy the following provisions:
(1) In accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 4 of Article 37 of the Act, the candidate comparison procedure items may include whether a student passed their assessment in the three learning areas Health and Physical Education, Arts and Humanities, and Integrative Activities stipulated in the Grade 1–9 Curriculum Guidelines. It is not permitted to include the results of school-based assessments in the four other learning areas: Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Sciences and Technology.
(2) Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students (CAP) results may be included among the candidate comparison procedure items. Any CAP results that are listed as candidate comparison procedure items shall only use letter grades, letter grades which include + or – as appropriate, or weighted grades; and a student’s CAP results are not permitted to count toward more than one-third of their total mark for the candidate comparison procedure.
4. When the number of students still exceeds the number of places after carrying out the candidate comparison procedure in accordance with the provisions of the preceding two subparagraphs, the school shall report the situation to the school’s competent authority and request its approval to increase its enrolment quota, or provide some other appropriate way to deal with the situation.
5. When a special municipality or city (county) level competent authority submits each district’s operation directions governing open admission that it formulated for review in accordance with the provisions of Subparagraph 1, if the central competent authority considers that any district’s operation directions are in breach of these Regulations or of the provisions of the compliance requirements referred to in Subparagraph 1, it will send an official letter to the special municipality or city (county) level competent authority requesting it to rectify the breach within a specified time, and that competent authority shall make the requested amendments as rapidly as possible, and provide a copy of the revised operation directions to the central competent authority for future reference.
In order to boost equal access to education opportunities in all areas, encourage students to enroll in a local school, and fully take into consideration the rights of disadvantaged students to attend school, the special municipality or city (county) level competent authority of each school district shall consult with the competent authority or authorities of the schools in that district, and after weighing up and considering the number of junior high schools, and the number of graduation year classes or the number of students graduating, it may formulate a method for implementing preferential access to open admission for some students and include details of this in the operation directions governing open admissions referred to in Subparagraph 1 of the preceding paragraph.
Article 7
A skill-based senior high school (commonly called “a vocational high school”) or a specialty-based senior high school that needs to hold selective admissions may conduct its open admissions in accordance with the provisions listed below and is not subject to the restrictions set out in the provisions of the operation directions governing open admission for its district. However, the school shall conduct any candidate comparison procedure in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 3 of the preceding article.
The school shall use study areas, departments or the entire school as a planning unit and draw up and submit its course plans, its particular need and reasons for applying to independently admit students and conduct selective admissions, and the items and nature of the candidate comparison procedure it will use if there are too many applicants for the places available and submit these to the district’s open admission committee to review. That committee shall then submit a report to its competent authority, and if that competent authority gives approval, the school shall then conduct open admissions independently.
2. Students may put their name down to be considered for admission at any school independently conducting the admissions referred to in the preceding subparagraph and are not restricted to doing so in any particular school district but they are limited to selecting just one school to enroll in.
3. The enrollment date for schools that independently admit students shall be the same as the enrollment date for schools in the same school district that conduct open admission. A school that still has places available may organize further recruitment efforts. The further recruitment shall be handled in accordance with the open admission method for every district, except in special circumstances that have been reported to the competent authority and it has given approval to the non-standard method proposed.
Article 7-1
A division of continuing education at a school that accepts enrolments by people who did not graduate from a junior high school at the end of the previous school year may consider the nature of enrollments in past years and decide its student enrollment quota for such people. It shall report this enrollment quota to the competent authority and conduct its open admissions independently, if it receives approval.
Article 8
The range of junior high school students who may participate in open admissions and the way that quotas for enrollment through open admission are allocated to schools in a shared-access school district are set out below:
1. In townships (towns, cities, or districts) that are located close to a school district and have been designated a shared-access school district, in accordance with Article 4, Paragraph 2:
- A junior high school student shall participate in open admission to a school in the school district where the junior high school from which the student graduated or acquired the equivalent of a junior high school education (hereunder referred to as “their original school district”) is located and any shared-access school district, in accordance with the provisions of the operation directions governing open admission for their original school district.
- A school located in a shared-access school district may reallocate part of its enrollment quota to be available for junior high school students in their original school district through open admission.
- Junior high school students shall choose between participating in the open admission in either their original school district or the shared-access school district and the admissions shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the operation directions governing open admission for that district.
- A school in a township (town, city, or district) where a junior high school referred to in the previous item is located may allocate part of its enrollment quota for junior high school students who are participating in the open admission in their original school district and the students who are participating in the shared-access school district.
Article 9
Indigenous key schools, or skill-based (vocational) school departments catering for particular industry requirements may conduct open admissions, alone or jointly with other such schools or departments, in two or more different school districts.
Article 10
A school that still has places available after conducting its open admissions may conduct further open admissions if it has reported the situation to its competent authority and received approval to do so. The further open admissions are not subject to the school district restriction and may be conducted in one or more other school districts as well. However, the procedures for holding the admissions shall still be conducted in accordance with the provisions of Article 6, Paragraph 1, Subparagraphs 2 to 4.
Article 11
Selective admissions are conducted as stipulated below:
1. Selective admission screenings: Specialized music, art, dance, drama, science, and physical education programs at a school, and specialized classes, departments, groups, and study areas of vocational study programs and departments at senior secondary schools may refer to or use a student’s CAP results as the threshold for admission and conduct admissions independently or jointly and shall give students a place on the basis of their mark for a test in the appropriate skill area and their aspirations.
2. Exam-based placement and admission:
(1) Schools that use students’ CAP results as the threshold for admission, and admit students on the basis of the results of their subject exams and their aspirations, and within each school district, each school shall conduct its exam-based admissions itself or jointly with other schools in that school district.
(2) Each school shall decide on the content of the subject exams referred to in the preceding item, and any grade weighting used, on the basis of its feature academic programs.
Each school district that conducts screenings for selective admissions or conducts an examination to allocate enrollment places shall conduct skills tests of the same type on the same day and conduct subject exams of the same type on the same day.
Article 12
The eligibility qualifications and eligibility verification procedure for junior high school students to participate in the selections for selective admission to the classes, departments, groups, and study areas referred to in Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 1 of the preceding article shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the Arts Education Act, the Special Education Act, the National Sports Act, Article 12 of the Act, and other relevant laws and regulations.
Article 13
The application and eligibility verification procedures for schools to handle selective admission exams and placements, and for vocational study programs and departments at senior secondary schools to handle selective admission are set out below:
1. The special municipality or city (county) level competent authority of each school district shall consult with the competent authority or authorities of the schools in that district and formulate operation directions governing selective admissions for the school district that are in accordance with the associated compliance requirements set by the central competent authority. The operation directions shall be made public and implemented, after the special municipality or city (county) level Education Review Committee has approved them and sent a copy to the central competent authority to file for reference. If a school district is partially located in each of two or more special municipalities or cities (counties), the respective competent authorities shall work together and decide on which one of them will take on the responsibility of acting as the competent authority in charge of that school district and they shall consult with each other to formulate the operation directions governing approval of selective admissions in that school district.
2. A school shall use classes (study areas, departments, or groups) as the planning unit and apply to its competent authority to conduct selective admissions. Schools that apply to conduct exam-based admission and enrollments, and vocational divisions at senior high schools that apply to conduct selections for selective admission to vocational study programs and departments shall also draw up a written proposal which must include details of the purpose of and reasons for conducting selective admissions, a self-assessment, course plans, teachers’ qualifications, teaching resources, how the admissions will be handled, student counseling modes, class grouping method, admission ratios, student performance, school evaluations, and the anticipated outcome.
3. The competent authority in charge shall invite each of the other competent authorities involved in a school district to jointly set up a review committee to review the written proposal referred to in the preceding subparagraph. The committee members shall comprise representatives of parents, teachers, the schools, junior high schools, and the competent authorities involved, and scholars and experts; and they shall comply with principle of avoiding conflicts of interest.
4. By September 30 in the year before the admissions are to be conducted, each special municipality or city (county) level competent authority shall report the results of the review referred to in the preceding subparagraph and the schools which the competent authority concerned has been given approval to conduct selective admissions and their approved enrollment quotas to the central competent authority for future reference, and then make these details public.
5. When a special municipality or city (county) level competent authority formulates the operation directions for approving selective admissions and reports them to the central competent authority for reference, in accordance with the provisions of Subparagraph 1, if the central competent authority considers that the operation directions contain any provisions that are in breach of these Regulations or of the provisions of the compliance requirements referred to in Subparagraph 1, it will send an official letter to the special municipality or city (county) level competent authority requesting it to rectify the breach within a specified time, and that competent authority shall make the requested amendments as rapidly as possible, and provide a copy of the revised operation directions to the central competent authority for future reference.
When a school that has been given approval to conduct selective admissions lodges an application in subsequent school years to continue doing so, a school may be exempted from having to submit the written proposal referred to in Subparagraph 2 of the preceding paragraph, if the competent authority concerned permits such an exemption. The number of school years for which the school may be exempted from submitting written proposal is not permitted to exceed two.
Article 14
(Deleted)
Article 15
A junior high school student who participates in a selective admission shall choose one district in which to register to take the exam and be given a place in a senior high school on the basis of that exam if they pass and the student is not restricted to doing so in the school district where they graduated from a junior high school or obtained the equivalent of a junior high school education.
Article 16
The times when each type of admission is to be held are stipulated below:
1. Open admissions:
(1) Students shall be assigned to a school by July each year.
(2) The direct admissions to a senior high school for students who have just graduated from an affiliated junior high school shall be conducted before the open admissions referred to in the preceding item; students who are directly admitted to a senior high school from an affiliated junior high school shall only be allowed to register to participate in an open admission if they first make a written statement that they have declined admission to the affiliated senior high school.
2. Selective admissions:
(1) Screening-based selective admission: In principle, students admitted this way will be assigned to their senior high school or enrolled at the same time as students are assigned to their senior high school through open admissions. If there are places available in a class or department after the enrollments, a further round of selective admissions screenings may be conducted if the competent authorities concerned gives its approval
(2) Exam-based placement and admission: Subject exams shall be held in June each year.
A student who participates in an open admission and also in a selective admission and in both cases is offered admission to a school shall choose one of the schools to enroll in.
The schools in each school district that conduct open admissions and exam-based selective admissions to give students enrollment places shall in principle all conduct the assigning of students to their senior high school at the same time.
Article 17
The total number of selective admission places in each school district is not permitted to exceed 25 percent of its total approved enrolment quota. If there are still places available after conducting the exam-based selective admissions, admissions, it is not permitted to continue the admission process and it is not permitted to make the remaining places available through some other form of admission.
Article 18
The total number of places available through open admission in each school district shall account for 85 percent or more of the total approved enrollment quota. The proportion of each school’s total approved enrollment quota accounted for by that school’s total number of places available through open admission shall, in principle, be 50 percent or more.
The number of places for students who go directly to a senior high school after graduating from an affiliated junior high school are not taken into account when calculating the proportion of the places at each school available through open admission stipulated in Paragraph 5 of Article 35 of the Act, and the proportion of the places available through open admissions provided by a private school that has applied to conduct admissions independently, in accordance with Paragraph 6 of Article 35 of the Act.
Article 18-1
If, for some proper reason, a special municipality or city (county) level competent authority is not able to complete the mandatory making public of the principles, procedure, and related regulations for the candidate comparison procedure that will be followed if there number of applicants exceeds the open admission quota, in accordance with the provisions of Article 37, Paragraph 3 of the Act, by the deadline stipulated in Paragraph 5, that competent authority shall report the reasons and the time when those details will be made public to the central competent authority to file for reference.
Article 19
Each special municipality or city (county) level competent authority shall set up an admissions promotion working group to study and discuss how open admissions and selective admissions will be conducted, enrollment quotas, and other admission-related matters.
The head of the competent authority or the head of the Education Bureau (Department) shall be the convener of the working group referred to in the preceding paragraph, and its members shall comprise appointed (assigned) representatives of parents’ groups, teachers' organizations, senior secondary schools, junior high schools, and the competent authorities involved, and experts and scholars. The number of junior high school representatives is not permitted to be fewer than the number of senior secondary school representatives.
Article 20
Each school shall establish a student admissions committee to plan and organize matters related to student admissions of any form in accordance with the relevant provisions of these Regulations. The committee shall also submit basic enrollment related information about the school, the departments that enroll students, their respective enrollment quotas, and the eligibility criteria to the three school district level admissions committees referred to in Article 21, Paragraph 1 to check the information and compile it into an admissions guide for each type of admission. Each of the three admissions committees shall each submit the admissions guide for the type of admission it handles to the competent authorities concerned for approval, and to the central competent authority for reference, and then make the respective admissions guides public.
Article 21
Apart from the schools that in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations may conduct admissions independently, in the light of actual needs related to handling admissions work, the schools in each school district shall jointly establish an open admission committee, a screening-based selective admissions committee, and an exam-based selective admissions committee for their school district, and conduct open admissions, selective admission through a screening procedure, and exam-based selective admissions in accordance with the resolutions of the admissions promotion working group for the school district, referred to in Article 19.
The members of the various admission committees referred to in the preceding paragraph shall comprise representatives of the special municipality level or city (county) level competent authority, school principals and directors of academic affairs, junior high school principals, teachers’ organizations, and parents’ groups. The number of representatives of junior high school principals, teachers, and parents is not permitted to be less than one-quarter of the total, and the number of representatives of junior high school principals is not permitted to be fewer than the combined number of representatives of teachers’ organizations, and of parents’ groups.
If there are less than fifteen schools in a school district and they are unable to form the admissions committees in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, they may report their situation to the special municipality or city (county) level competent authority, and if it gives permission, they may adjust the number of committee members of different categories and are not subject to the restrictions set out in the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
The various admission committees referred to in Paragraph 1 shall each set up a complaints subcommittee and an emergency response subcommittee to be responsible for handling any complaints or emergencies pertaining to the admission procedures that arise.
Article 22
The admissions committees in each school district shall send representatives to jointly establish a national admissions committee for each type of admission to coordinate affairs related to admissions in each school district.
Article 23
To handle multiple admission channel related matters, senior high schools may work with junior colleges offering five-year programs to form a national committee for adaptive admissions to senior high school and junior college five-year programs. The committee shall be composed of members of the working groups and committees referred to in Article 19, Article 21, and the previous article and members of junior college five-year program admission committees and it shall integrate, coordinate, and supervise any matters affairs referred to in these Regulations that relate to admissions of any sort, nationwide.
Article 24
The members of each of the working groups, subcommittees, and committees referred to in Articles 19 to 23, and any person who engages in any work related to exam matters has a duty and responsibility to keep all matters related to any exams and all matters related to the assigning of students to schools confidential.
If any personnel member listed in the subparagraphs below or their spouse, or any former spouse, or third degree or closer blood relative, or third degree or closer relative by adoption or marriage, or any person who had such a relationship with that person registers to participate in any admission procedure that is being held that school year, in which that personnel member is involved, that personnel member shall withdraw from any related involvement.
1. The members of the various committees referred to in Articles 20 and 21.
2. Any member of any of any of the working groups, subcommittees, and committees referred to in Articles 19, 22, or 23, who is involved in handling test or exam-related work of setting questions, marking, reviewing results, or supervising any test or exam, or any committee member or worker who is involved in the preliminary task of reviewing applicants’ accumulated points or qualifications, or the final task of assigning students to schools, conducted in a restricted access area.
If a school district imposes restrictions that are more stringent than those of these Regulations then the school district provision shall apply.
Article 25
Students may be charged a fee for participating in the various types of admission held in accordance with these Regulations. The admissions committees shall propose the amounts to charge and report these to the central competent authority for its approval. However, children from low-income households and students with direct older generation blood relatives receiving unemployment benefits are exempt from having to pay the fees.
Article 26
The enrollment quotas, admission methods, and other compliance requirements for admission to cooperative education programs, practical skills programs or courses, or special education programs offered by senior secondary schools shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of relevant regulations.
Article 27
The special municipality or city (county) level competent authority shall promote adaptive counseling for junior high school students, assist junior high schools to provide students with adaptive options for enrollment and supervise this, and establish school inspection visits and assessment mechanisms.
Article 28
Junior high schools shall act in coordination with the admission work of the various admissions committees and provide graduates and students who completed courses with the assistance they require.
Junior high schools shall plan the school’s adaptive counseling in an appropriate manner, based on students' abilities, aptitude, interests and various test results, and teachers' everyday observations and exploration activity records, and in accordance with the Junior High School Career Development Education Manual and the Junior High School Student Career Guidance and Counseling Record Handbook, formulated by the central competent authority.
Each junior high school shall hold an aptitude test for students in grade 8 and an interest test for students in grade 9. The test results shall be used as the basis for providing a range of exploration and hands-on activities and shall be provided to grade 9 students and their parents by April 30 in the second semester to use as a reference for planning related to entering senior high school.
Article 29
These Regulations shall take effect on September 1, 2013.
With the exception of the amendments to these Regulations that were promulgated on September 12, 2014 and took effect on August 1, 2015; the amendments to Article 6, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 3, Item 2, to Article 6, Paragraph 2, to Article 19, and to Article 21, Paragraph 2 that were promulgated on June 10, 2015 and took effect on August 1, 2015; and the amendment to Article 24 that was promulgated on August 16, 2016 and took effect on August 1, 2016, the amendments to these Regulations shall take effect on the date of promulgation.
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