The Examination Yuan said yesterday that questions on national examinations should be fair and steer clear of bias.
The questions on national examinations should not reflect the examiner's political ideology, touch on controversial issues or further racial or sexual discrimination, the Examination Yuan said.
According to the body, the examiners must not test on the intricacies of classical Chinese or irrelevant ancient Chinese literature. In addition, it is improper to test based on dialects that have not been accepted by the general public.
Examination Yuan members made the decision at a closed-door meeting yesterday morning.
Members were responding to the controversy over the use of Hokkien-language questions on exams for customs officials and police.
Although the passages in the exams were written in Chinese characters, they make sense only to speakers of Hokkien.
The questions prompted pan-blue lawmakers to cast doubt on the impartiality of national exams.
People First Party Legislator Chin Huei-chu (
She took the issue to the Control Yuan yesterday and petitioned for an investigation into the dispute.
"Control Yuan members should scrutinize whether the examination authority failed to supervise the examiner of these national tests and whether such an oversight had destroyed the authoritativeness of national exams," Chin told the Control Yuan yesterday.
She said the Control Yuan should determine whether it is acceptable that Taiwan's geography and history dominated the questions since current textbooks do not reflect this focus.
Chin also demanded that Control Yuan members review the examiners responsible.
In response, Examination Yuan Secretary-General Chu Wu-hsien (
He said the Examination Yuan will conduct any necessary reviews of questions that generate disagreements in society.
The Control Yuan, following Chin's demands yesterday, said it will investigate the dispute.
On Monday, Control Yuan Member Lin Shu-chi (
"It is indeed unsuitable and debatable to apply only one dialect in the national examination. But further investigation is needed before making a judgment on whether the questions broke laws or conflicted with the Constitution," Lin said.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS