Groups yesterday protested the Ministry of Education’s bid to “slightly adjust” the national high-school curriculum, calling the move part of a “brainwashing” policy that would see the new curriculum reflect a more China-oriented perspective.
Despite the groups’ opposition, the ministry later formally approved a new curriculum on Chinese literature and social sciences.
“Taiwanese have fought long and hard to reach a stage where there is much less political influence on our education, so it is therefore unacceptable that the government under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] is making an U-turn on this progress,” Jim Lee (李筱峰), a professor at National Taipei University of Education’s Graduate School of Taiwanese Culture, told a rally in front of the ministry in Taipei.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“The so-called ‘slight adjustment’ is not slight at all, it’s a fundamental and dramatic change from a Taiwan-oriented perspective to a China-oriented perspective in education,” Lee added.
Saying that the current curriculum is “too friendly” when it comes to describing the period when Japan controlled Taiwan and unconstitutional when describing China, ministry officials and members of its curriculum outlines adjustment task force have proposed calling the era of Tokyo’s rule the “Japanese colonial period” and referring to “China” as “Mainland China” in textbooks.
They also proposed making adjustments to the description of the period when the nation was under the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) authoritarian regime.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“I am totally opposed to replacing Taiwan’s perspective for China’s in our nation’s history classes,” National Taipei University student Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) said. “Taiwanese history can be neither Chinese history, nor KMT history.”
National Taiwan University history professor Chen Tsui-lien (陳翠蓮) criticized the government for making such dramatic changes clandestinely.
“These are major alterations and therefore require more public participation,” she said.
As the groups protested outside the ministry, another group of demonstrators led by the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan tried to block the entrance to the National Academy for Educational Research (NAER), where the curriculum task force was meeting.
“We’re here to stop the task force from making rash decisions without consulting the public,” alliance convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) said. “This is such a controversial issue, it should not be decided without having more public discussions — especially when NAER vice president Tzeng Shih-jay [曾世杰] promised us on Friday that he would organize public hearings before making any decisions.”
The protesters briefly stopped some task force members from entering the building, but were removed by police after severe clashes.
The ministry said the changes are based on the 12-year national education system, which is set to be implemented in August, and aimed at achieving better continuity between junior-high and senior-high school textbooks.
After reviewing the curriculum on literature and social sciences, the ministry said it would next review health and physical education.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned the ministry for not halting the initiative.
“The ‘adjustment’ of the curriculum outlines is not an adjustment, but a total overhaul,” DPP spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
The ministry’s changes “seriously conflict” with most people’s understanding about the nation’s history and geography, Chang said, adding that more than 85 percent of respondents in a DPP opinion poll say that the country’s territory includes Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, but not “mainland China.”
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS