Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday that his municipality refused to adopt revised high-school curriculum outlines established by the Ministry of Education, adding that all municipal high schools would keep the current outlines.
Lai’s remarks came in the wake of the ministry’s move on Monday to approve a new high-school curriculum on Chinese literature and social sciences that it said contained “slight adjustments” based on the Constitution.
Among the approved changes were calling the era of Tokyo’s rule of Taiwan the “Japanese colonial period” and referring to China as “Mainland China” in textbooks.
Photo: CNA
Lai said the ministry’s adjustment was made less than two years after the implementation of the current outlines, four years shorter than the legally regulated implementation period of six years, and would baffle teachers and students.
Moreover, the adjustment distorts historical facts and the mainstream understanding of Taiwan’s history, and was an attempt to “brainwash” Taiwanese school pupils, he said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayor said the city’s four municipal high schools would continue using the current curriculum and urged the national high schools in the city and textbook publishers to challenge the ministry’s change of outlines.
Separately yesterday, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the DPP caucus would make clear the party’s refusal to accept the change in the new legislative session and he urged DPP-governed cities and counties to “take the necessary and stringent measures” against the adjustment.
Pro-Taiwan supporters, historians and the DPP have described the adjustment as a “de-Taiwanization” effort that is trying to instill students with a “Greater China” historical perspective.
Former Academia Historica president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) said the adjustment was an overhaul of the outlines — not “slight changes” — and also failed to tell Taiwan’s real history.
The changes focus on rebuilding the historical connection between Taiwan and China as well as the perspective of Han Chinese, and ignore Taiwan’s identity and diverse cultures, Chang said.
Chang said the ministry’ unilateral act has drawn a strong backlash from historians and high-school teachers.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS