Taiwan’s flourishing cram school industry has come under scrutiny after a school in the island’s south was probed recently for alleged child abuse.

International Mind Research Institute in Tainan city was investigated by the authorities two weeks ago after parents complained that it made their children swallow fire and step on glass purportedly to help them conquer their fears.

The case has not only raised questions about whether enough was being done to regulate the schools, but also Taiwanese parents’ blind faith in them.

Educationists say this underlines the pressure faced by students in Taiwan’s exam-focused educational system and the failure of education reforms.

"Parents want their children to do well but don’t know how to do it. They believe advertisements about classes that can bring out their children’s potential," said National Taiwan Normal University education professor Wu Wu-tien.

The parents drawn to International Mind Research Institute - many of whom were highly educated - were willing to pay as much as NT$300,000 for half a year’s lessons for two children, reported Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper.

Such attitudes have helped fuel a rise in the number of tuition schools from 1,200 in 1997 to 7,000 in 2006, wrote sociologist Liu Jeng from Tung-hai University in western Taiwan’s Taichung city, in a research paper.

This does not include ventures which are not registered as tuition or enrichment schools but still offer such classes. International Mind Research Institute, for instance, was registered as a business consultancy agency and not a school.

Seen as something undesirable in the 1970s, tuition has since come to be accepted as a part of life in Taiwan, Dr Liu told The Straits Times.