ABSTRACT The educational system now in Taiwan is multi-phased and completely different from the previous elitist educational system. It has been 14 years since educational reform was conducted by the 410 Educational Reform Movement in 1994. This movement believed in modifying the old previous system for the benefit of more students. The research is to better understand the parents¡¦ views towards education, and how much education from craming schools is actually needed. The researcher interviewed the children grade one to grade nine in Pintung City, who go to craming schools regularly. This research was conducted through questionnaires and with available statistics. It was discovered that, according to 393 parents interviewed, students showed differences in the following items ever since the implementation of the Grade 1 through 9 Curriculum: 1. Attitudes towards the new policies: More females have recognized the benefits and more teachers had more flexible time with students. 2. Attitudes towards education: A better economy means more opportunities for some students to have lessons at craming schools. Parents have discovered that it is not easy to help their children with their studies. 3. Education from craming schools many parents value how well their children perform academically. Therefore, before they decide on a certain craming school, they investigate the teaching quality and reputation of different craming schools. 4. Cram schools offer a variety of courses and parents pay extra money for supplementary courses. 5. Medium income families depend more on craming schools. 6. Parents with higher education know better how to make the most of craming schools. 7. Lower income families and those with lower education are in greater need of supplementary classes from craming schools. The Grade 1 through 9 Curriculum educational system aims at integrating students¡¦ learning abilities, developing students¡¦ compassion for the less privileged, and to help students acquire more knowledge about international affairs. These goals are for keeping the students competitive internationally. In addition, our government expects that the new system can be integrated with the future 12-year compulsory educational system in order to provide students from poor communities and families with more access and opportunities for higher education. It is true that the government has provided various accesses to higher education: however, this has resulted in a wider variety of classes being offered by craming schools. Now there are classes on developing learning skills, courses on dealing with tests and exams, how to win intercampus competitions, and a wider variety of classes in core subjects. Craming schools are needed by society however; they now play a role of supervising the quality of our educational system. They also are widening the division of access to a complete education between the poor and the rich Thus cram schools and educational policies should target customer satisfaction and student and teacher approval. Now what is highly expected from the policy makers is to keep cram schools competitive in a good way so that the students can obtain the most benefits.

This diploma thesis is focused on influence of regions on attitudes towards continuing education. The aim of this diploma thesis is to identify influence of Prague and Ostrava region to attitudes towards continuing education. The theoretical part describes the terms of continuing education and attitudes. Within those concepts is pursued influence of attitudes towards behavior with special focus on elements with power to influence attitudes towards continuing education. Different methods to measure attitudes are presented. More attention is given to the RAACES scale (Revised Adult Attitude Toward Continuing Education Scale) that is used in empirical part of the thesis. The thesis also summarizes essential cultural, social and economic characteristic of selected regions, Prague and Ostrava region, including their definition. The empirical part of the text is dedicated to the analysis of questionnaire. It measures attitudes towards continuing education of retail managers from Prague region and from Ostrava region towards continuing education with the RAACES scale. The interest of the research was to describe influence of regions on attitudes towards continuing education and to describe structure of attitudes towards continuing education of Retail Managers. Key words: attitudes toward education,...