The term “continued service” as referred to in Article 6 of the Act Governing the Retirement of School Teachers and Staff means that by the time of retirement, school teachers or principals shall have remained employed continuously for 20 years.

　　　 Article 6 of the Act Governing the Retirement of School Teachers and Staff states that: “School teachers or principals who have served in a school for 30 years, been employed continuously for 20 years, and have received distinctions in merit evaluations and are still employed may apply for retirement and receive the retirement fund in a lump sum, and its units may be increased in accordance with Article 5, provided that the maximum of said units shall be no greater than 81; while the receipt of the retirement fund is by monthly payment, such increase has an upper limit of 95% of the retirement fund.” Compared to the restriction on the highest amount of general retirement fund that can be granted to public functionaries, the said one-time lump sum retirement fund can be increased up to a maximum of 20 units, while the upper limit for the monthly retirement payment can be increased by up to an additional 5% of the original retirement fund. The reason for the difference is because the upper limit of credit basis for the general retirement fund granted to public functionaries for such lump sum retirement payment is 61 units, which such public functionaries will be entitled to receive if their period of service has reached 30 years, and there will be no further increase if such public functionaries remain continuously employed. Therefore, the abovementioned Act includes this Article 6 for those school teachers or principals who have served for 30 years and as long as such school teachers or principals continue to provide service, they will receive an additional 2 units in one lump-sum retirement fund for every additional year of service. In the event that such school teachers or principals after completion of a total of 40 years satisfy the requirements of “continuous employment for 20 years with distinctions in merit evaluation and continue to provide service,” they will receive an additional 20 units, which along with the original entitlement of 61 units, will make a total of 81 units. The purpose of the above provision is to encourage school teachers or principals to remain at their position and prevent those who are not currently school teachers or principals from seeking employment (when they have almost reached retirement age) as school teachers or principals in order to secure a better retirement fund. The phrase “with distinctions in merit evaluation and continuing to provide service” after the term “continuously employed for 20 years” is for the aforesaid purpose. Accordingly, the term “continued service” as referred to therein means that by the time of retirement, school teachers or principals shall have been continuously employed for 20 years. Whether those persons who have served continuously for 20 years and then transfer to supervisory or other education administrative positions to perform professional work are entitled to the abovementioned additional lump-sum retirement fund credit units is a question for the Legislative Yuan and is hereby pointed out.