All schools shall employ a full-time principal who is responsible for the overall management of school affairs.
The selection of principals of special municipality and county（city）schools shall be conducted using a publicly open selection process by a selection committee convened by the related special municipality or county（city）competent authority from among candidates who were selected in an open selection process and satisfactorily completed further training, or from among currently serving principals who have nearly completed their term of appointment or who are more than halfway into their second term, and persons who have previously served as principals. After a person has been selected, they shall be appointed to serve as principal by the special municipality or county（city）competent authority. However, special municipalities or counties（cities）with fewer than 15 junior high schools or 40 primary schools under their jurisdiction may appoint a principal currently serving a second term and are not subject to the requirement that the principal has to have completed more than half of their second term. The associated directions governing shall be prescribed by the special municipality or county（city）competent authority.
The selection of the principals of experimental primary schools and of junior high schools affiliated with public universities that offer teacher training programs shall be conducted by a selection committee organized by the public universities that offers teacher training programs that the school is affiliated with. Suitably qualified personnel shall be selected be from among the teachers of the university, and the principal or teachers of its affiliated experimental primary school or junior high school, and/or principals or teachers of other schools. The selected candidate shall then be appointed on a fulltime or adjunct basis by the president of the public university that offers teacher training programs, and a report submitted to the competent authority for future reference.
A private school shall convene a principal selection committee to conduct the selection of its school principal; the directions governing the composition and convening of the selection committee, and other related matters shall be prescribed by the board of directors of the private school endowment corporation（hereinafter referred to as the “school legal person”）.
The selection committee referred to in the preceding paragraph shall select a principal from a list of qualified candidates, using a publicly open selection process.
After selecting a suitably qualified private school principal, the board of directors of the school legal person shall submit details of the selected candidate to the special municipality or county（city）competent authority for approval before the person is appointed.
Representatives of the parents’ association, and representatives of the teachers’ association, or teacher representatives shall be on the selection committee referred to in Paragraphs 2 and 3. The proportion of each category of representatives on the committee is not permitted to be less than one fifth, and the number of members of any gender is not permitted to constitute less than one third of the total number of committee members. The composition of the selection committee and the operations of the selection committee shall each be prescribed by the special municipality or county（city）competent authority, and by the public university that offers teacher training programs.

The term “candidates who were selected in an open selection process and satisfactorily completed further training” used in Paragraph 1 of the preceding article refers to persons who satisfy one of the following criteria:
1. They are personnel waiting to be a principal who were selected in an open selection process conducted by the Taiwan provincial government or a special municipality competent authority and satisfactorily completed further training before the February 5, 1999 amendments of this Act came into effect.
2. They are personnel waiting to be a principal who were selected in an open selection process conducted by a special municipality or county（city）competent authority and satisfactorily completed further training since the February 5, 1999 amendments of this Act came into effect.
3. They are personnel who were selected in a publicly conducted selection process and satisfactorily completed further training to be school inspector or section chief before the February 5, 1999 amendments of this Act came into effect and are qualified to be a school principal.
Any full-time public school teacher who was in any of the circumstances listed in the following subparagraphs in the previous three years is not permitted to participate in the open selection, training, or final selection to serve as a principal:
1. The person has been found guilty of a criminal offense. However, this restriction does not apply if a final and conclusive court judgment declared that the person was not guilty.
2. The person is subject to disciplinary action which has not been revoked.
3. The person has received a demerit or more severe administrative penalty, which has not been revoked.
The regulations governing the selection and further training of principals, and other related matters referred to in Paragraph 1 of the preceding article shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.

The special municipality and county（city）competent authorities, and public universities that offer teacher training programs that organize selection committees in accordance with Paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 13 shall evaluate the performance of the principals serving at schools, or affiliated experimental primary schools and junior high schools and use the results of the evaluations as the basis for deciding whether or not to continue their appointment.

School principals are employed on a fixed-term basis. The term of appointment is four years for a public school principal, and the principal may be employed for one consecutive term at the same school. Principals may return to a teaching position after their term of appointment expires. However, a principal who will reach retirement age within a year after their term of appointment expires may, with the approval of the selection committee and of the competent authority after the proposal is reported to it, continue to serve as principal until their retirement.
The associated directions shall be prescribed by the respective competent authorities.
The term of appointment for principals of schools in indigenous areas shall be prescribed by the special municipality or county（city）competent authority. With the exception of the term of appointment referred to in the proviso in Paragraph 1, the term of appointment for principals of special municipality and county（city）schools may be extended to fit in with the beginning and end of the school year, schools if the selection committee agrees and submits its decision to the special municipality or county（city）competent authority and approval is given. The associated directions shall be prescribed by the special municipality or county（city）competent authority.
The directions governing the term of appointment and consecutive terms of appointment of private school principals shall be prescribed by the board of directors of the school legal person.

If there is factual evidence of a school principal’s unsuitability for employment, in accordance with the law, the principal shall be removed from their position, transferred to another position, or dealt with in another appropriate way by the competent authority for the school; in accordance with the law, a principal of a private school shall be removed from their position, transferred to another position, or dealt with in another appropriate way by the board of directors of the school legal person.
The regulations governing the determination of the existence of factual evidence of incompetence referred to in the preceding paragraph, the way to deal with the situations referred to there, and other associated matters shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.

If a currently serving principal of a public school who has a teacher’s qualification as defined by the Teachers’ Act is willing to resume a teaching position, the competent authority shall assign them to a school, or a public university that offers teacher training programs shall arrange for them to teach at their former school. The principal’s resuming a teaching position is not subject to the provisions of the Teachers’ Act or the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators relating to requirements for teachers to be assessed and approved by the school’s teacher evaluation committee.
The currently serving principal of a public school referred to in the preceding paragraph is not permitted to resume a teaching position if it has been determined by the competent authority that any of the circumstances which the Teachers’ Act or the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators stipulate are grounds for dismissal or denial of renewal of appointment apply to that person.
If a currently serving public school principal has served their term and has not been selected for reappointment, or is not qualified to teach and is unable to take a teaching position, or is qualified to teach but unwilling to resume a teaching position, the school’s competent authority or a public university that offers teacher training programs may handle the situation in the following ways:
1. Approve retirement for those who satisfy the criteria for voluntary retirement.
2. Give those who do not satisfy retirement criteria or who are unwilling to retire, priority counseling to assist them to transfer to another occupation or position they are willing to take and in accordance with their individual qualifications.
If a principal currently serving at a private school who has a teacher’s qualification as defined in the Teachers’ Act is willing to resume a teaching position, their case shall be dealt with by a resolution made by the board of directors of the school legal person.
The currently serving principal of a private school referred to in the preceding paragraph is not permitted to resume a teaching position if it has been determined by the competent authority that any of the circumstances specified by the Teachers’ Act or the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators as grounds for dismissal or denial of renewal of appointment apply to that person.

Schools shall set up a school council, convened and presided over by the principal, that will deliberate on and make decisions about the following matters:
1. Important matters pertaining to school development and campus planning.
2. Important rules and regulations formulated in accordance with ordinances or based on legal authority.
3. Educational affairs, student affairs, general affairs, and other important matters within the school.
4. Other matters which in accordance with ordinances shall be resolved at a school affairs meeting.
The school council members shall include the principal, all full-time teachers or representatives of the teachers, representatives of the parents’ association, and representatives of staff members; students shall be invited to attend meetings in a non-voting capacity. When selecting teachers’ representatives to be on a school council, the number of persons of any gender is not permitted to be less than one third of the total number. The directions governing the proportion of different categories of school council members and the operations of school councils shall be prescribed by the respective competent authorities.

To handle educational affairs, student affairs, general affairs, and other matters, schools shall set up, separately or in combination, a tier-one unit and/or a tier-two unit, depending on the size of the school.
The tier-one units referred to in the preceding paragraph have a director and the tier-two units referred to in the preceding paragraph have a section chief, and tier-one and tier-two units both also have several staff members. The directors at public schools shall be appointed to serve on a part time basis by the principal from among qualified full-time teachers who were selected and then satisfactorily completed further training; the section chiefs shall be selected from among the teachers to serve on a part-time basis, or from among the staff to serve on a full-time or part-time basis; and the staff of the units shall be selected by the principal. The selections shall all be submitted to the special municipality or county（city）competent authority for future reference.
Schools shall set up personnel and accounting units. Smaller public schools which have not set up such dedicated units may employ full-time personnel and accounting staff from agencies of the special municipality or county（city）competent authority（organization）for personnel and accounting, schools’ fulltime personnel and accounting personnel, or qualified staff who have satisfactorily completed associated training organized by a relevant authority and work on a part-time basis. The standards governing the staffing of the units shall be in accordance with the provisions of related ordinances.
The personnel referred to in the preceding paragraph do not include nursing personnel.
Any full-time public school teacher who was in any of the circumstances listed in the following subparagraphs in the previous three years is not permitted to participate in the selection of a director, training to serve as a director, or obtain the qualifications to serve as a director:
1. The person has been found guilty of a criminal offense. However, this restriction does not apply if a final and conclusive court judgment declared that the person was not guilty.
2. The person is subject to disciplinary action which has not been revoked.
3. The person has received a demerit or more severe administrative penalty, which has not been revoked.
The regulations governing the selection and further training of directors at public schools, and other associated matters shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.

Schools shall conduct student guidance and counseling matters in accordance with the provisions of the Student Guidance and Counseling Act.
Schools shall promote student guidance and counseling work through a dedicated unit or dedicated personnel.
Tier-one guidance and counseling units have a director and tier-two units have a section chief, and tier-one and tier-two units both also have a number of full-time counseling teachers. The director and section chief shall be selected by the principal from among teachers who are enthusiastic about guidance counseling and who possess related professional knowledge and skills. In principle, counseling directors and counseling teachers are appointed on a full-time basis.
The number of full-time counseling teachers and full-time professional guidance counselors a school has in its staffing complement shall comply with the provisions of the Student Guidance and Counseling Act.

Schools shall establish libraries（or reading rooms）, allocate ample funding in their budget for purchasing books, and provide reading courses as incentives to encourage extracurricular reading.

In principle, public schools shall have small classes and each class shall have a teacher serving as its homeroom teacher on a part-time basis. Small schools may consider increasing the number of teaching positions. The regulations governing class sizes and staffing shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.
The regulations governing staffing referred to in the preceding paragraph may be prescribed based on the number of students’ learning periods and the number of hours the teachers teach.
The special municipality or county（city）competent authority may consider a school’s needs, and in accordance with the provisions of the regulations referred to in Paragraph 1 and remaining within a fixed proportion of the full-time staff complement of the entire school, shall use all of the fulltime personnel staffing budget not being spent because of staff vacancies to pay expenses to employ necessary teaching staff for the school.

Teachers shall be employed full-time; when necessary, in accordance with the law, teachers may be employed part-time, and personnel specializing in specific disciplines or fields to provide part-time teaching support.
Regulations governing the scope of work, qualifications review criteria, certification, appointment, dismissal, suspension, reporting of being unsuitable for employment, teaching hours, remuneration, rights and obligations, and other matters pertaining to the teaching support personnel referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.
The operations to undertake the certification referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be conducted by the special municipality or county (city) competent authority. With the agreement of the respective competent authorities, teaching support personnel may have already recognized qualifications recognized by other competent authorities.
People who underwent checking and training that was implemented in accordance with the provisions of the central competent authority with satisfactory results before June 30, 2002 are qualified to be employed as the teaching support personnel referred to in Paragraph 1.
The standards governing the weekly teaching hours referred to in Paragraph 1 shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.

Public schools may jointly appoint a teacher with another school because of cooperation between the schools, course needs, or special circumstances, and the teacher shall be appointed on a full-time basis in one of the schools. The regulations governing the criteria for jointly appointing teachers and the associated ratio limits, the teachers’ rights and obligations, and other related matters shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.

The employment of school teachers is governed by other legislation. The regulations governing teachers’ continuing professional development, awards and disciplinary measures, transfers of public school teachers, procedures, and methods for transfers, and other related matters shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.
Public school principals and teachers shall have their work performance evaluated; the regulations governing the composition and tasks of the evaluation panel or evaluation committee, the evaluation procedure, evaluation levels, categories of rewards and penalties, notification of evaluation results, and other related matters shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.
The number of members of any gender is not permitted to constitute less than one third of the total number of members of the evaluation panels and evaluation committees referred to in the preceding paragraph.

Apart from the appointment of private school principals, teachers, and other staff conducted in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators, the Teachers’ Act, and the Private School Law, and relevant provisions of this Act, the people in charge of each unit, and each unit’s teachers, and other staff shall be appointed or employed on a part-time basis by the principal, and the staffing decisions shall be submitted to the special municipality or county（city）competent authority for future reference.