A top junior high school in Taipei could not find enough physics and chemistry teachers this year, a sign of a growing teacher shortage across Taiwan. Seven science teaching jobs went unfilled, and similar gaps are emerging nationwide, putting pressure on classrooms.
The basic reason is a shift in what young graduates want to do. Taiwan’s booming semiconductor industry has made tech jobs far more appealing, especially to people with science or engineering degrees. Wu Ming-chieh, who teaches civics and social studies at the Affiliated Chu Pei Senior High School of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, says the tech sector’s pull is strong enough to change students’ plans, too. Half his school’s classes once focused on the humanities; now only two do. Most students aim for science and engineering, then industry jobs instead of teaching.
By the start of the 2026 school year, hundreds of teaching positions across Taiwan remained unfilled. The sharpest shortages were in STEM subjects such as physics and chemistry.
Recruitment figures from Taiwan’s six special municipalities show the scale of the problem. Taipei advertised 56 physics and chemistry teaching jobs but filled only 30. Taoyuan filled less than half of its 41 positions. New Taipei hired just 10 of the 20 teachers it needed. The shortage reaches beyond science. Taiwan has 230,000 certified teachers, but only about 155,000 work in schools. That leaves 75,000 qualified teachers outside the classroom, most certified for junior and senior high schools.
Pay is not the only reason teachers are leaving. New discipline rules have made the job riskier. Since 2020, the Ministry of Education’s school incident review meetings have allowed parents to file complaints against teachers over perceived misconduct. The system was meant to weed out truly unfit teachers, but it has become a way for parents to intervene in daily classroom management. Teachers can now face formal investigations over routine actions, such as writing students’ class numbers on the blackboard to remind them about homework, a practice recently banned after a parent complained.
Vincent Yeh Ching-chi, who leads the National Federation of Teachers Unions, says the current system puts teachers in a tough spot. They are legally required to keep order yet risk complaints over almost any action. Yeh recalls a case in which a student secretly recorded a teacher for a month, then filed a list of grievances. Even when complaints are dismissed, the process is stressful, particularly for new and substitute teachers, and pushes many away from the profession.
Reports in major Taiwanese media say many schools have increased existing staff’s workloads. Some teachers take on overtime, while others fill gaps with temporary or underqualified personnel. Unions and education experts have raised concerns about the long-term effects on teaching quality and teacher burnout.
To avoid trouble, some teachers now stick to the basics and do only what is required. This “defensive teaching” means less extra help for students and fewer adjustments to individual needs. In January, the Ministry of Education tried to address the problem by banning anonymous complaints and tightening the review process. Complaints fell: 313 were filed in the first five months of this year, down from 586 in the same period last year. More cases are dismissed early, with 35% rejected at the first stage and only 22% going to a full review.
There is still no agreement on how to fix the system. The Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee recently sent proposed changes back for further work, leaving the issue unresolved. Some in education want to scrap the review meetings altogether. Others, including Wu Ming-chieh, say genuine cases of inappropriate discipline still need to be addressed. Wu and Yeh both think frivolous complaints should carry a cost, such as a fee refunded only if the complaint is upheld.
Despite the difficulties, some young teachers are sticking with the job. Lin Yu-hsiang, a 31-year-old substitute teacher, returned to graduate school to finish his training and began a six-month practicum in August. He worries about future complaints but says fear should not deter people who believe in teaching. Many of his classmates, but, have already left for tech jobs.
Taiwan’s teacher shortage is part of a wider trend seen elsewhere, including the recent funding crisis in Andalusian universities. Both cases show how outside economic pressures and internal policy changes can disrupt established education systems. Students and teachers are left to deal with the fallout.
As the government tries to balance accountability with the realities of school life, the current approach risks driving away the teachers schools need. Parental oversight and bureaucracy are adding pressure, while higher-paying tech jobs make teaching a riskier career choice. Unless policymakers find a way to restore trust and give teachers more autonomy, Taiwan’s schools could face a talent drain that rules alone cannot fix.
