High-school students have stood up in protest against the unprofessional and illegal “minor adjustments” to high-school curriculum guidelines. This has made us see the determination and courage of the new generation of students not to let politics interfere in their education.
The curriculum guidelines are a part of Taiwan’s democratization and liberalization over the past 20 years. In the 1990s, as the nation’s democratization and liberalization were developing, the selection of textbooks has changed from a centrally compiled single edition to several different textbooks per curriculum.
For historians and high-school history teachers, this systemic change was a great encouragement. This is also why so many idealistic academics, experts and teachers over the past two decades have exerted such an effort to collect a wide range of opinions, engage in debates and hold public hearings and teaching trials at schools to amend the history curriculum.
The History Center and the 98 (ie, 2009) High-School History Curriculum Web sites, which are still being maintained, are evidence of the efforts and passion of the historians and history teachers over the past two decades.
Following the change in government in 2008, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) shelved the 2009 curriculum guidelines that had been completed with great effort and set up a task force to amend them. In 2012, it announced the 2012 curriculum guidelines.
Because historians and high-school representatives insisted on the basic academic quality and educational ideals, very few changes were made in the 2012 guidelines compared with the 2009 version, although the nation had a new government and the members of the task force had been replaced. Indeed, there were no major differences between the two task forces in terms of what a history curriculum containing specialist knowledge should look like, even though these task forces had different party affiliations.
However, ever since an “audit team” lacking expertise and ignoring legal procedures offered its so-called “minor adjustments,” they have met vehement opposition from academic circles, high-school teachers and high-school students.
After the protests, the Executive Yuan has since acknowledged that educational content must be neutral and it is now thinking about writing an educational neutrality act. Given this situation, the Ministry of Education should promptly put aside its controversial 2014 curriculum guidelines and announce the temporary implementation of the 2012 guidelines.
At the same time, it should allow schools to choose between the old and new versions of textbooks for this academic year as a transitional measure. The development of all curriculum guidelines that are part of the 12-year national education program that is currently being amended should also be suspended. These should only be allowed to go ahead after curriculum legislation that introduces a more democratic, advanced, transparent and complete mechanism for public oversight has been completed.
One can only hope that the education ministry might listen to students, teachers, academics, parents and society at large, learn its lesson and resolve the conflict by immediately shelving the 2014 curriculum guidelines while at the same time announcing the temporary implementation of the 2012 curriculum guidelines.
Wu Mi-cha is an adjunct professor in National Taiwan University’s history department.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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