The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) are manipulating students and are the source of discontent in schools nationwide in ongoing controversy surrounding the Ministry of Education’s planned adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) said.
Chen was referring to students in more than 200 senior-high schools nationwide who have petitioned against the ministry’s decision to make changes that students said reflect a “China-centric” view.
The students also said the planned changes are illegal, referring to a Feb. 12 High Administrative Court ruling that the ministry must make its information more transparent and complete for public scrutiny.
Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times
Chen on Friday said the opposition parties and pro-Taiwanese independence groups are manipulating and misleading the students because students lack sufficient information about the current affairs of the educational system.
“Complaints on materials listing the Himalayas as the nation’s highest peak are false and we are offering an award of NT$5,000 to anyone who can find any mention [in the adjusted curricula] that the Himalayas are the Republic of China’s highest peak,” she added.
Chen also defended the ministry in its appeal against the Taipei High Administrative Court.
While the court ruled that the ministry should make public the members of the Committee of Curriculum Review, the ministry has released other information, such as meeting records, and has not conducted any so-called “black box” meetings, Chen said.
KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) suggested that the ministry abandon the proposed changes, adding that it should negotiate with students about the content of the curriculum guidelines.
The process of learning is supposed to go both ways, after all, she said, with students learning from teachers and the teachers benefiting from students’ questions.
The approaching summer vacations might cause concerned parents to take to the streets in protest, and the nation could ill afford any accidents, Yang said, adding that as the ministry has taken a step back and not insisted on the exclusive use of new textbooks, the issue is not as pressing as it might appear.
“We should all sit down and talk about the matter,” Yang said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) rejected the accusations of misleading students.
The KMT government and Chen are attempting to escalate the issue to a confrontation of pro-localization and pro-unification camps, Cheng said.
The issue is a question of the confrontation between truth and falsity, and the confrontation of education and politics, she said.
However, without full disclosure, the case should be considered as lacking transparency, Cheng said, adding that the ministry was afraid of making the list of members public because whether the ministry “cheated” would be easy to discern once the list is disclosed.
Lack of transparency is the very definition of a “black-box” operation and infringes on procedural justice, Cheng said, adding that the ministry is withholding information to keep the public in the dark and to buy time until the changes go into effect in August, creating a de facto victory.
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS