A teachers' union has accused the Hsinchu city government of breaking hiring rules at its newly launched Jianhua senior high school project — bad news for the city's mayor and for the substitute teachers involved.

• The city unveiled a preparatory office for the new school this week, but staffed it by advertising for one-year substitute teachers with "any subject" welcome.
• The union says this is a dodge to avoid paying for permanent civil-service staff, dumping the heavy work of setting up a school onto cheap short-term hires.
• Under Taiwan's rules, substitute and part-time teachers are not allowed to serve as homeroom teachers or hold administrative posts.
• Taiwan is already short of substitute teachers, so pulling them into full-time office work instead of classrooms makes the shortage worse.
• The city's education department says "any subject" only describes who could apply, not what they would do, and it may rewrite the notice.

Outlook: The union wants central education authorities to investigate, so pressure on the city to change the job posting is likely to grow.