The upcoming city-county merger in Taichung has created new problems for twelve local elementary schools, which share six names among them. So far no decision has been reached as to which schools get to keep their names. But whatever the result, it's certain that name changes for these schools alone will entail a cost of more than 20 million NT dollars.

Taichung City's Taiping Elementary School was founded 73 years ago, while Taichung County's Taiping Elementary School, which has 56 classes, was founded 92 years ago.

When Taichung City and Taichung County merge, one of these two schools, which are located just ten kilometers away from each other, will have to change its name.

In total, 12 Taichung elementary schools are facing name changes following the merger. For now, schools will be identified by their districts.

It remains to be seen which criteria, whether it's age, student population, or regional representation, will be used to determine which schools will have to change their names.

Schools forced to change their names will have to spend an estimated 2 to 3 million NTD, and educational authorities and schools are both taking "wait and see" approaches for the time being.

No decisions will be made until post-merger administrative districts are finalized.