New Taipei City Launches Taiwan's First AI Counseling Coach to Help 30,000 Junior High Students Select High Schools

(CNA Reporter Huang Hsu-sheng, New Taipei, 12th) Entering the critical period for school selection after the announcement of the Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students results, the New Taipei City Education Department has launched Taiwan's first 'AI High School Counseling Coach'. It provides free counseling to nearly 30,000 ninth-grade students and their parents in the city, helping them develop their aptitudes based on their abilities and directions.

Chang Ming-wen, Director of the New Taipei City Government Education Department, stated at a press conference this afternoon that selecting a school is not only based on grade ranking but also requires comprehensive consideration of factors such as students' aptitudes, school characteristics, curriculum planning, commuting distance, and tie-breaking criteria for over-enrollment.

He said that to ease the burden on students and parents in gathering and understanding enrollment information, the Education Department collaborated with the 'University Manger' website, National Ilan University, and Gaia Information, and introduced Google Cloud platform technology to build the 'AI High School Counseling Coach' public service platform.

Chang Ming-wen mentioned that the 'Teacher Ai AI High School Counseling Coach' integrates functions such as aptitude-based school selection, tie-breaking criteria point calculation, commute planning, and scholarship information. It assists students in understanding the differences between general high schools, vocational high schools, and five-year junior colleges, and provides reference suggestions for school selection based on exam scores, interests, and educational needs. However, he emphasized that the most important thing is human choice and decision, and one cannot rely on AI for everything.

Wei Chia-hui, CEO of the 'University Manger' website, told the CNA reporter that the platform integrates curriculum maps, school club features, and campus surrounding traffic information of 148 schools, as well as historical admission quotas, admission standards, and tie-breaking rules, transforming complex enrollment information into easily understandable suggestions. She stated that this is the first AI high school counseling coach in the country.

Chen Wei-jung, President of National Ilan University, said that the team developed an AI Large Language Model (LLM) knowledge retrieval architecture using RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). By integrating admission brochures, syllabus documents, school data, and commuting information, it improves the accuracy and reference value of AI responses.

Chen Wei-jung told the CNA reporter that the AI Promotion Office of Ilan University not only fulfills the university's social responsibility but also allows the team to apply what they have learned through practical operation by integrating big data and language models.

Wu Ping-chun, CEO of Gaia Information, stated that the platform uses Google Cloud's enterprise-grade architecture, which can support simultaneous use by a large number of students and parents while ensuring information security.

The Education Department indicated that to encourage studying locally, students registered in New Taipei City and graduating from junior high schools in the city, who attend New Taipei City municipal high schools or vocational high schools and meet the exam score standards, can receive a scholarship of up to NT$300,000. Low-income households, unemployed workers, children of people with disabilities, and students with disabilities can also apply for a student grant of NT$5,000 per semester. In the future, it will continue to combine enrollment counseling with AI technology resources to assist students in aptitude development and career planning. (Editor: Liang Chun-ti) 1150612