The Ministry of Education has announced a series of measures to ease the financial burden for parents.

Starting this August, children under the age of 5 and vocational high school students from families with an annual income of less than 1.14 million NT dollars would no longer have to pay for their education.

In addition, the MOE plans to exempt tuitions in 2014 for all vocational and high school students.

While attending a national education conference in Taitung County on Monday, Education Minister Wu Ching-ji announced the waiving of tuition fees for public and private vocational high school students from families with annual income of less than 1.14 million NT starting this year.

An estimated 350,000 students will benefit this fall, and the government is planning to expand the program to cover all vocational high school students by 2014.

The measure will standardize vocational high school tuitions, and was passed with the ROC's new 12-year compulsory education policy in mind.

Wu also announced that the free preschool policy for five-year olds in aboriginal townships and offshore islands will be expanded to cover every preschool on the island starting this fall, meaning that the compulsory education program will actually be extended to 13 years.

When asked where the funds for the programs would come from, Wu said that the government has taken measures to raise Taiwan's education investment standards and national competitiveness.

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