Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基), the former deputy mayor of Taipei, said yesterday he would continue pushing the “one guideline, single textbook” policy — a major municipal education policy under Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration.
Wu, who was also a member of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) municipal team during the latter’s tenure as Taipei mayor, had served as head of the city’s Department of Education for more than five years and did not hesitate to challenge the Ministry of Education in pushing the single textbook policy proposed by Hau.
Hau said the policy would reduce the burden on students by standardizing textbooks. The city’s decision, however, ran counter to the ministry’s policy allowing schools to pick their own textbooks to encourage diversity. The issue has become a bone of contention between the central and local governments.
Brushing off the thorny issue, Wu said yesterday that the ministry had approved the city’s plan to hold joint examinations with Taipei County and Keelung based on its single-textbook policy, with the first joint examinations to be held in 2011.
“Different cities and counties have different considerations,” he said. “I will respect the local governments’ decisions and will not force other cities and counties to implement the policy.”
Assisting students in disaster areas to continue their education, as well as cooperating with the Ministry of Health to contain the spread of A (H1N1), or swine flu, in schools will also be top priorities, Wu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS